5 



y 




/'^ 



NOTICES 



ENGLISH COLLEGES & CONVENTS 

ESTABLISHED ON THE CONTINENT 

APTEK THE DISSOLUTION OF 

RELIGIOUS HOUSES IN ENGLAND. 

THE LATE HON. EDWARD PETRE, 



THE REV. F. C. HUSENBETH. 




they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming they shall come 
" with joy fulness, carry hig their sheaves r — Psalm cxxv. 7, 8. 



■NortDicf) : 

BACON AND KINNEBROOK 

MDcicxxix. 



' ■'^U('U^A. 



7 ^^'^^ 



^ 



^ 



^T/ 






CONTENTS. 


page 




PREFATOUY NOTICE 


iv 




ESTABLISHMENTS OE THE ENGTJSH SECULAR CLERGY. 




1.— THE COLLEGE AT DOUAY 


1 




11.— THE COLLEGE AT ROME 


5 




III.— THE COLLEGE AT VALLADOLID 


8 




IV.— THE COTJ-EGE AT SEVILLE 


11 




v.— THE COLLEGE AT MADRID 


12 




VI.— RESIDENCE OE ENGLISH CLERGI AT ST. LUCAR . 


13 




VII.— THE COT-T,EGE AT ST. OMER 


15 




VIIL— THE SCHOOL AT ESaUERCHIN 


16 




IS.— THE SEMINARY AT PARIS 


17 




X.— THE COLLEGE AT LISBON 


18 




ESTABLISHMENTS OP THE ENGLISH SECULARS. 






Religious Men. 






I.— ENGLISH BENEDICTINS. 






1. Benedictin Peiort and College at Douay !.. 


24 




2. Benedictin Priory at Dieulouard 


27 




3. Benedictin Priory at St. Mat,o 


30 




4. Benedictin Priory at Paris 


31 




5. Benedictin Abbey at Lansperg, or Lambspring 


32 




6. Other Benedigtin Establishments in Germany 


34 


^ 



iv CONTENTS. 


n.— ENGLISH CARM"RT JTES. 




BAIffilOOTED CaEMELITES AT TONGRES 


35 


m.— ENGLISH CARTHUSIANS. 




Cakthusian Convent at Nieuport 


36 


IV.- ENGLISH CISTERCIANS. 




Cistercian Monks oe La Trappe 


39 


v.— ENGLISH DOMINICANS. 




1. Dominican Convent and College at Bornheim 


41 


2. Dominican College at Louvain ... 


43 


VI.— ENGLISH FRANCISCANS 




Convent of Franciscan Recollects at Douay... 


44 


Vn.— ENGLISH JESUITS. 




1. Jesuit College at St. Omer 


46 


2. Jesuit Noviciate at Watten 


47 


3. Jesuit College at Liege 


49 


4-. Jesuit Professed House at Ghent 


50 


Religious Women. 




I — AUGUSTINIAN NUNS. 




1. Canonesses of St. Augustin at Louvain 


52 


2. Canonesses of St. Augustin at Bruges 


54 


3. Canonesses of St. Augustin at Paris 


56 


4. Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre at Liege 


58 


"•— BENEDICTIN NUNS. 




1. Benedictin Abbey at Brussels 


60 


2. Benedictin Abbey at Cambray 


62 


3. Benedictin Abbey at Ghent 


65 


i. Benedictin Abbey at Lansperg, or Lambspring 


68 


5. Benedictin Abbey at Paris 


69 


0, Benedictin Abbey at Pontoise ... 


.. 71 


7. Benedictin Abbey at Dunkirk 


72 


8. Benedictin Abbey at Ipres 


76 


"^•- BIUDGETTINS. 




Bridgettin Convent of Sign House 


.. 77 



CONTENTS. 



IV.— POOR CLARES, OR FRANCTSCA.NS. 

1. Convent of Poor Clares at Gravelines 81 

2. Convent oe Poor Clares at Dunkirk 84 

3. Convent oe Poor Clares at Aire 86 

4. Convent oe Poor Clares at Rouen 88 

5. Nuns oe the Third Order oe St. Francis at Bruges 90 

6. Nuns oi the Conception, or Blue Nuns, at Paris ... 91 

v.— DOMINICANESSES. 

Convent oe Dominicanesses at Brussels 94 

VI— JESUITESSES. 

Convent of Jesuitesses, or Wardists, at St. Omer ... 98 

VII.— TERESIANS OR CARMELITE NUNS, 

1. Convent oe Teresians at Antwerp ... 100 

2. Convent of Teresians at Lierre .'. 101 

3. Convent oe Teresians at Hoogstraet 103 

CONCLUSION 104 



PREFATOEY NOTICE, 



The following accounts were written at the request of the late 
HoNBLE. Edward Petre, who had collected some materials 
and made various notes for the purpose. He had felt a lively 
interest in the remains of our Religious Establishments on the 
Continent^ and was anxious to preserve what information could 
he collected respecting them. He had also considered that the 
particulars of their history had never been presented to the 
public in a collected form, nor indeed in some instances ever 
printed. This little work was completed before the death of 
its lamented originator, and had met his entire approval. It is 
now therefore given to the public, in full confidence that to 
the English Catholic especially, its details, however slight and 
imperfect, will not fail to prove precious and attractive. 

F. C. HUSENBETH. 
Cossey, December 8tli, 1848. 



ACCOUNTS 

OF 

THE ENGLISH COLLEGES AND CONVENTS 

ESTABLISHED ON THE CONTINENT, ETC. 

lSj5tat>U08ment0 of tfte Secular mtvg^* 

L 

THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT DOUAY. 

To perpetuate the succession of the Catholic clergy, 
at a time when a total extinction of the ancient faith 
was apprehended in England, William Allen, after- 
wards doctor of divinity, cardinal and archbishop of ^^^U4jikct^2^(d^~{^:^'>^7 
Mechlin, formed the project of establishing colleges for 
the education of the clergy on the Continent. Having 
drawn together many learned men, who had been 
educated at Oxford and Cambridge, he laid the founda- 
tion of a college, or seminary at Douay, in Flanders. 
Mr. Morgan Philips, who had been Provost of Oriel, 
and formerly Allen's master, purchased a convenient 
house for the establishment. Contributions were made 
by Allen and several of the Catholic clergy, and further 
aid was obtained from England. Three neighbouring 



DOUAY COLLEGE. 



abbeys of Benedictins, the university of Douay, and 
other communities assisted, and collections were made 
in Douay, and the neighbouring towns. It was opened 
in 1568, and in a few years the number of its inmates 
amounted to one hundred and fifty ; of whom, eight or 
nine were eminent doctors of divinity. The under- 
taking was applauded by the Holy See, and Pope St. 
Pius Y. wrote an encouraging letter to its founder. 

His successor, Gregory XIII. being informed of the 
I 

state of the college, and having received a strong 

recommendation of it from the Catholic nobility and 

gentry of England, as well as from the university of 

Douay, and several religious communities, settled upon 

the new establishment in 1575 an annual pension of 

1200 Roman crowns, and soon afterwards raised it to 

2000; which sum was always regularly paid, and was 

almost the only certain revenue of the college. 

Douay College was not only the first of the English 

nation, but is believed to have been the first in the 

Christian world, instituted in strict accordance wdth 

the decrees of the Council of Trent. After it had sent 

fifty-two priests to labour in the English mission, the 

tumults of the Low Countries in 1578, obliged the 



DOUAY COLLEGE. 



seminary to remove from Douay, then under the 
dominion of Spain, to Rheims, in France. The real 
instigator of the proceedings against the college was 
Queen Elizabeth. Two or three persons however 
remained, and kept possession of the house, for fifteen 
years, when the college was invited by the magistrates 
to return to Douay, in 1593. At Rheims their num- 
bers increased ; and twelve more priests were sent out 
in the same year of their removal thither, who were 
followed by twenty more in the succeeding year 1579. 
In a little time, there were two hundred persons belong- 
ing to the establishment at Rheims. They returned 
to Douay in 1593, and continued for two centuries to 
supply priests to the English mission. Douay college 
produced one cardinal, two archbishops, thirty one 
bishops and bishops elect, three archpriests, about one 
hundred doctors of divinity, one hundred and sixty 
nine writers, many eminent men of religious orders, 
and one hundred and sixty glorious martyrs, besides 
innumerable others, who either died in prison, or suf- 
fered confinement or banishment for their faith. Many 
also of our Catholic nobility and gentry received their 
education at Douay college ; among whom, it is highly 






DOUAY COLLEGE. 



gratifying to record the noble name of tlie late lamented 
Bernard Edward, Duke of Norfolk. 

On the 12th of October, 1793, the college of Douay 
was seized by the French ; and its inmates were con- 
veyed prisoners to the citadel of Dourlens. There they 
remained till the 24th of November, 1794, when they 
obtained permission to return to Douay, being twenty 
six in number. They were still prisoners in the Irish 
College, but under less restraint. In the following 
February, they were set at liberty, and arrived in 
England on the 2nd of March, 1795. These last 
residents at Douay College became the founders and 
first members of the several colleges of Old Hall Green, 
Ushaw, and Oscott, which were all established shortly 
after the dissolution of Douay College, and the return 
of its inmates to their native land. The following is a 
list of the presidents of the English College at Douay 
from its first foundation. 



Dr. James Smith .... 1682 

Dr. Edward Paston . . . 1688 

Dr. Robert Witham . . . 1714 

Dr. William Thornburgh . 1738 

Dr. W^illiam Green . . . 1750 

Mr. Henry Tichborne Blount 1770 

Mr. William Gibson . . . 1781 

Mr. Edward Kitchen . . . 1790 

Mr. John Daniel .... 1792 



Dr. William Allen . . . 


1568 


Dr. Richard Barrett . . 


1588 


Dr. Thomas Worthington 


1599 


Dr. Matthew Keliison . 


1613 


Mr. George Musket . . 


1641 


Dr. William Hyde . . . 


1646 


Dr. George Leyburn . . 


1652 


Mr. John Leyburn . . . 


1670 1 


Dr. Francis Gage . . . 


1676 1 



ROMAN COLLEGE. 



II. 

THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT ROME. 

The English College at Rome was the eldest daughter 
of Douay, whence it received its first members. Pope 
Gregory XIII. whose attention had long been turned to 
the distressed state of reKgion in England, conceived the 
idea of establishing a college in Rome for the English 
nation. He consulted Dr. Allen, Dr. Owen Lewds, 
archdeacon of Cambray, and afterwards bishop of Cas- 
sano. Dr. Goldwell, bishop of St. Asaph's, and others of 
the English clergy, who earnestly recommended the pro- 
ject. The Pope accordingly converted the Hospital of 
St. Thomas into a college, for the education of secular 
priests for the English mission. Dr. Maurice Clenock, a 
secular priest, and bishop elect of Bangor, in the reign 
of Queen Mary, who was the last Warden of St. Thomas' 
Hospital, was appointed by his Holiness, the first rector of 
the new Roman College. This was in 1578, and in the 
year following, the Pope issued the Bull of its founda- 
tion, for fifty students; giving them the hospital and 
two contiguous houses, the church of the B. Trinity and 
St. Thomas, an annual pension of 6000 crowns, and all 



ROMAN COLLEGE. 



the property of the hospital. At the command of his 
Holiness, the first students were sent by Dr. Allen from 
the college then at Rheims. Dr. Clenock presided over 
the Roman college only about a year, when he was 
removed to make way for an Italian Jesuit, F. Agarrazio ; 
and not long after, the sole government of the college 
fell into the hands of the English Jesuits, under whom 
it continued till the suppression of the Society by Pope 
Clement XIV. in 1773. 

The college was then administered by Monsignor 
Foggini, and other Italian priests. Repeated memorials 
and petitions were presented from England, for the 
restoration of the college to the English secular clergy. 
These however were unsuccessful, and the college was 
rendered almost useless to the English mission. In 1798 
the college was seized by the French, under Bertier, 
and remained closed for twenty years. At length, in 
1817, on the death of Cardinal Braschi, the protector, 
who had taken possession of the college and its revenues, 
after the expulsion of the French from Rome, the Rector 
of the Scotch college, the Rev. Dr. Macpherson, and 
the Rev. Dr. Lingard, who was then at Rome, waited on 
the Secretary of State, Cardinal Consalvi, and explained 



ROMAN COLLEGE. 



to him the original object of the establishment, its 
failure under Italian superiors, and the increasing wants 
of the English mission. Repeated memorials had been 
previously sent from the Vicars Apostolic in England. 
The result was, that Cardinal Consalvi procured the 
re-establishment of the college by Pope Pius YII. and 
may justly be regarded as its second founder. The Rev. 
Robert Gradwell, afterwards bishop of Lydda, and coad- 
jutor in the London District, was appointed rector, on 
the 8th of March, 1818. A colony often students soon 
after arrived from England; and the revived college 
flourished exceedingly under its new rector. In 
18^7, it contained thirty students. In 1828, Dr. 
Gradwell was appointed coadjutor to Dr. Bramston; 
and was succeeded in the rectorship by Dr. Wiseman. 
When he also returned to England, in 1840, as coadjutor 
to Dr. Walsh, in the Central District, Dr. Baggs suc- 
ceeded to the administration of the college. He became 
Vicar Apostolic of the Western District in 1844, and 
was succeeded by Dr. Grant, the present superior of the 
Roman college. This establishment in its first days, 
furnished besides other labourers, forty-four generous 
martyrs, who were put to death for the discharge of 



VALLADOLID COLLEGE. 



their duties in England ; and since its second founda- 
tion, it has sent many able and zealous missioners to 
labour in their own country. Its revenue is about 
£1500 a year. 

III. 

THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT VALLADOLID. 

The college of Douay having been obliged to remove 
to Rheims, was not without apprehensions even there, 
from the disturbed state of France. The rector of the 
English college at Rome at that time, was the Jesuit 
Father Persons; who wrote thence to Dr. Allen, the 
founder of Douay college, to suggest the expediency of 
providing further resources for the supply of priests to 
the English mission, in case the college at Rheims 
should be disturbed. Three students were hereupon 
sent from Rheims to Spain, to endeavour to form an 
establishment in that country. They landed at Corunna, 
in the latter part of May, 1589, and after many difficul- 
ties arrived at Valladolid. Here they were entirely 
unknown ; but accidentally fell in with two Englishmen, 
who were pursuing their studies in the town. They 
lodged with these, and for some time frequented the 



VALLADOLID COLLEGE. 



public schools. Their slender means of subsistence 
were, however, soon exhausted, and they were obliged 
to depend for three months' further support upon the 
generous charity of a nobleman in the town, Don Alfonso 
de Quinones. But F. Persons had learned their adven- 
tures and distresses, and proceeded to Spain to exercise 
his zeal and industry in their behalf. He had collected 
some funds for them from the Duchess of Feria, Sir 
Francis Englefield and others ; and he at once removed 
the students from their inconvenient lodging to a house 
which he hired, and which afterwards became the college 
of St. Alban. He next drew up rules for the adminis- 
tration of the new establishment, gave the students an 
academical dress, and saw the college settled in regular 
form before Michaelmas of the same year, 1589. F. 
Persons soon after appointed Father Ceciliano a Jesuit, 
first rector of the new college of Valladolid. In the next 
year, he altered and enlarged the house, which he had 
at first only rented, but had been enabled to purchase, 
by the liberality of the nobleman above mentioned. 
Other contributions were received for the support of the 
new college ; and in the course of a few months, F. 
Persons obtained of the Spanish government a perma- 



10 VALLADOLID COLLEGE. 



nent pension settled on the establishment, of sixteen 
hundred crowns; which was made up to four thousand 
by various contributions of nobility, gentry, and clergy, 
including one thousand annually from the bishop of 
Jaen, and a like sum bequeathed by the archbishop 
of Toledo. The establishment of the seminary was 
approved and confirmed by a Bull of Pope Clement 
VIII. in 1592. Twenty more students were sent thither 
from Rheims in 1590, having been preceded by three 
priests from the Roman college, and three also from 
Rheims. The first rector, F. Ceciliano, was recalled by 
the King of Spain to Madrid early in the same year ; 
and was succeeded by F. de Guzman. 

The college of Valladolid supplied several glorious 
martyrs, among the missionary priests executed for 
their faith in England. In the year 1605, the revenues 
obtained from the Court of Spain amounted to 4000 
crowns annually. 

When the English coUeges at Madrid, Seville, and 
Valladolid were restored to the secular clergy, on the 
suppression of the Jesuits in Spain, in 1767, Bishop 
Challoner united them all at Valladolid, and appointed 
Dr. Perry the first president. 



SEVILLE COLLEGE. 11 

IV. 

THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT SEVILLE. 



The English college of St. Gregory, at Seville, was 
founded by the zeal and labours of Father Persons, on 
the 25th of November, 1592, assisted and favoured by 
the Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro, Don F. de Caravajal, 
and the Conde de Pliego. The bishop of Jaen gave an 
annual sum of 1000 crowns to this college, v^hile he 
lived, as he did also to the seminary of Valladolid. 
Many others of the Spanish nobility, clergy, and gentry 
countenanced the establishment, and contributed very 
liberally towards its support. Its first rector was Father 
Francis Peralta, of the Society of Jesus. The college 
was first begun in the Calle de la Surpe, but a more 
commodious house was purchased after many difiiculties 
for 7000 crowns, and the members of the seminary came 
to dwell in it, October 4, 1595. Pope Clement VIII. 
confirmed the establishment, and favoured it with ample 
privileges, by a brief on the 15th of May, 1594. A 
church was built for the college by the liberality of a 
pious widow and her two brothers, and dedicated with 
great solemnity on St. Andrew's day, 1598. The house 



12 MADRID COLLEGE. 



was subsequently enlarged, and four lesser houses added 
to it, as also a commodious garden made, with a stream 
of water through it, from a fountain bestowed on the 
college by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. The church 
historian Dodd observes that the revenues of this 
college having been very precarious, it never made any 
extraordinary appearance. Some few however of the 
missionary priests who suffered for the faith in England 
were educated at Seville, as William Richardson, alias 
Anderson, executed at Tyburn, 1603 ; and Thomas 
Reynolds, alias Green, at Tyburn, 1642. When the 
Jesuits were suppressed in Spain, in 1767, the college 
at Seville was restored to the secular clergy, and united 
by Bishop Challoner to that of Valladolid. 

V. 

THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT MADRID. 

This was a small community of English clergy esta- 
blished at Madrid, through the interest of F. Persons at 
the Court of Spain, and called St. George's. Its means 
of support became sufficiently ample, by the generous 
donations of the citizens, as well as of an Italian gentle- 
man resident in Madrid. But it never prospered to any 



ST. LUCAR'S ESTABLISHMENT. 13 



extent. It had but few English students, probably 
owing in part to the uncongenial climate, subject to the 
extremes of heat and cold ; which was one of the reasons 
assigned for aggregating it to the English college of St. 
Alban at Valladolid, situated in a more healthy part of 
Spain. This was ejffected by Bishop Challoner, through 
the instrumentaKty of Dr. Perry, the first secular rector 
of St. Alban's at ValladoKd, after it came into the 
hands of the secular clergy, upon the suppression of the 
Jesuits in Spain in the year 1767. The property of St. 
George's college in Madrid lay chiefly in houses, which 
were sold for profitable investment in lands near Valla- 
dolid. Dr. Perry died in Madrid shortly after this 
exchange was effected; and thus ended all connexion 
with the English college at Madrid. 

VI. 

RESIDENCE OF THE ENGLISH CLERGY AT 
ST. LUCAR. 

Besides the English colleges in Spain, there was an 
establishment for the secular clergy at St. Lucar, near 
Seville. It rose out of a confraternity of English mer- 
chants, resident in the town, who erected a church and 



14 ST. LUCAR'S ESTABLISHMENT. 



house for the accommodation of their countrymen, on 
land granted them by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. 
This was in the year 1517 ; and the establishment 
flourished for upwards of seventy years. A certain 
number of English chaplains officiated in the church, 
and the members found the institution highly useful 
and advantageous. But war with England, and the 
consequent decay of commerce so aifected the establish- 
ment, that in 1591, the fraternity conveyed the church, 
house, lands, and property to the English secular clergy 
for ever. They gave it as a residence for as many chap- 
lains as the funds would support. All vacancies were 
to be filled up by the CathoKc bishops of London, 
Winchester, or Exeter. They appointed cardinal Allen 
to act as visitor ; and after his death, the Jesuit provin- 
cial of Andalusia ; but specially provided that neither 
he, nor any other religious should pretend to any right 
to the church or house, or any thing in them, but only 
to do them a good work, out of charity, for the better 
life and manners of the president and chaplains. This 
grant was confirmed by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, 
and the cardinal archbishop of Seville. A body of rules 
was drawn up, binding the chaplains to receive and for- 



ST. OMER'S COLLEGE. 



15 



\fciZ. 



ward on their journey, any priests proceeding from the 
seminaries in Spain to the English mission. 

VII. 

THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT ST. OMER. 

This was originally a Jesuit college ; and was founded ^^^^ 
by F. Persons in 1594. It was at first intended for the 
reception of only sixteen youths ; for whose support the 
king of Spain allowed 160 ducats a month. This sum 
was afterwards increased, and the number of students 
regulated by the discretion of the fathers of the society. 

On the expulsion of the Jesuits from France, the 
English Jesuits shared the fate of their brethren. The 
college of St. Omer then came into the hands of the 
secular clergy, in 1764. Its second president was the 
celebrated Alban Butler, in 1766; in which office that 
venerable man continued till his pious death in 1773. 
The coUege of St. Omer was seized at the French revo- 
lution, and its members confined at Arras, in three 
different places. In May, 1794, they were transferred 
to the citadel of Dourlens, and became feUow-prisoners 
with their countrymen from Douay college. Rev. 
Gregory Stapleton was their president. One of their 






16 ESQUERCHIN SCHOOL. 



professors, the Rev. Richard Brettargh, died under the 
hardships of imprisonment. They were recalled to St. 
Omer in the latter part of October following, and left 
Dourlens, sixty-four in number. On their return to 
St. Omer, they were confined in the French college, 
adjoining their own. At length, in the following year, 
1795, they were set at liberty, and returned to England. 
They arrived under the conduct of their president, Mr. 
Stapleton, at Old Hall Green, on the 1 5th of August. 
After a few years, Mr. Stapleton was appointed Vicar 
Apostolic of the Midland District, and Dr. Paynter 
succeeded him as president of St. Edmund's college, 
Old Hall Green, on the 15th of February, 1801. 

VIII. 

SCHOOL AT ESQUERCHIIS. 

This was a small establishment at the village of 
Esquerchin, three miles from Douay, and belonging to 
that college. It was founded about the year 1750, by 
the Hon. James Talbot, afterwards V. A. of the Lon- 
don district, as a school for boys of the lower classes. It 
shared the fate of Douay college, to which it belonged. 
It was entered on the evening of the 12th of October, 



PARIS SEMINARY. 17 



1793, by a commissary of the district of Douay, the 
mayor of the place, and an officer in the national 
uniform of France, who surrounded the house with 
forty soldiers. They proceeded to take possession of 
the effects, but all that was valuable had previously 
been removed. 

IX. 

THE ENGLISH SEiVlINARY AT PARIS. 

This was an institution in Paris, known as the college 
of Arras, and intended partly for the residence of the 
clergy, who had finished their studies, and might 
further improve themselves there, — and partly for the 
maintenance of a certain number of writers for the 
defence of the Holy Catholic religion. The design for 
such an establishment having been laid before Pope 
Paul v., his holiness approved of it, and expressed his 
readiness to render every assistance towards printing the 
works produced by the members of such institution. 
Accordingly, in the month of August, 1611, a small 
house was hired for the purpose in Paris, near the 
Porte S. Victoire ; and the new establishment was taken 
possession of by Dr. Smith, October 26th following. 



18 LISBON COLLEGE. 



He was joined there by Drs. Bishop, Champney, and 
Kellison, with Mr. Richard Ireland, previously master of 
Westminster school, and also by a cousin of Dr. Smith. 
This college continued for several years famous for 
its learned inmates, and the ability of their productions. 
In 1667, it was much augmented by a Mr. Carr of 
Douay college, but not completed till many years 
after, when Dr. Betham was appointed to preside over 
it. He was enabled to purchase a handsome house and 
garden in the Rue des Postes, Fauxbourg S. Marceau, 
and opened it as St. Gregory's seminary, by letters 
patent from the King of France, in 1701. 

X. 

THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT LISBON. 

The college at Lisbon was first projected by an 
English priest residing in that city, named Nicholas 
Ashton. When he died, he bequeathed his house to 
another priest, William Newman, or in his default, to 
the Jesuits, in trust, for the foundation of a seminary. 
The real name of Mr. Newman was Ralph Sliefild. He 
was rector of the house which Ashton had purchased 
with a view to forming a seminary. A rich nobleman. 



LISBON COLLEGE. 



19 



Don Pedro Coutinho, who honoured Newman with his 
intimate friendship, offered to erect a college at his own 
expense for the education of English secular priests. 
Mr. Newman proceeded to Madrid in August, 1621, to 
obtain the necessary permission for its erection from 
Philip IV. who reigned over both Spain and Portugal. 
Here he met with great opposition from the Jesuits, 
who sought the government of this new college, as they 
already governed the seminaries of Rome, Valladolid, 
Seville, and Madrid. To this, however, the founder 
Coutinho would not consent, and positively declared 
that if it were insisted upon, he would abandon the 
undertaking altogether. Having at length surmounted 
great and vexatious opposition, and gained his object at 
Madrid, Mr. Nevmian returned to Lisbon ; and soon 
after procured from the Pope a brief in confirmation of 
the new establishment, dated September 22, 1622. The 
founder purchased a house, garden, and other premises, 
and built a small church, intending the community to 
consist of only twelve persons, besides servants, as a 
beginning ; and allowed one hundred and fifty pounds 
a-year towards their support. The completion of the 
work was committed to the Rev. Joseph Harvey, alias 



20 LISBON COLLEGE. 



Hynes, the archdeacon of the English chapter. It was 
not till the year 1627, that the establishment was 
ready for the reception of its destined inmates, and 
Mr. Harvey returning to England, was appointed the 
first president. On the 14th of November, 1628, he 
arrived again at Lisbon, with a colony of ten students 
from Douay; but, broken down by his exertions and 
fatigues, he was taken ill, and died on the 22nd of 
the February following. The schools were opened on 
the 25th of April, 1629. The second president was 
Dr. Blacklow, who drew up a code of rules, and settled 
the government of the establishment. The first of the 
English benefactors to the college was Mr. Anthony 
Morgan, one of the earliest students, who died at the 
college, August 11 th, 1631, and bequeathed to it 
twenty-four pounds a year. The seminary, small and 
poorly endowed as it was, acquired however so much 
fame from its very commencement, that it has been said 
of it, " that the college at Lisbon never had a morning, 
but shone out at once in all the splendour of meridian 
day." During the presidentship of the Rev. Peter 
Clarence, and by his exertions, was obtained of the 
Portuguese authorities the privilege of conferring 



LISBON COLLEGE. 21 i 

I 



degrees ; and the degree of D. D. was first obtained 
by Mr. Edward Daniel, in the year 1640. Two very 
distinguished members of Lisbon College, Dr. Goden 
and Mr. John Sergeant, who had become converts to 
the Catholic faith, arrived at the college on the 4th of 
November, 1643. Dr. Goden, after greatly distinguish- 
ing himself both in learning and virtue, was made 
president of the college in 1655. The controversial 
writings of the Rev. John Sergeant are well known and 
highly appreciated. He was also eminently successful 
in his missionary labours in England. Among the 
ornaments of the college, the Rev. John Gother stands 
very conspicuous. He entered the college January 10, 
1668, soon after his conversion to the Catholic faith; 
and left it, to labour on the mission in England, at the 
close of 1682. After twenty-two years spent in mis- 
sionary labours and controversial and spiritual writings, 
which cannot be too highly esteemed, Mr. Gother pro- 
posed to return to Lisbon, but died on the voyage, 
October 13, 1704. His body was brought to Lisbon, 
and solemnly buried in the church of the college, near 
the altar of St. Thomas of Canterbury. Up to the end 
of the seventeenth century, the college flourished most ; 



23 LISBON COLLEGE. 



but its resources were yet very scanty. The buildings 
were mean, the accommodations poor and inconvenient, 
and the diet of the collegians scanty. Under the pre- 
sidentship of Rev. Edward Jones, funds were collected 
through his zeal and activity for rebuilding the college. 
But the sums collected were so inadequate, that though 
the building was commenced in 1714, it was not roofed 
in till 1727 ; and the interior was even then left in a 
very unfinished state. About the year 1720, an impor- 
tant donation was made to the college, of a house, vine- 
yard and lands, at a place called Pera, on the south side 
of the Tagus. The college buildings sustained con- 
siderable injury in the great earthquake of 1755, and 
the president, Mr. Manley, was killed by the falling of 
a turret, which had been left standing of the old house. 
After remaining in a very depressed state, and with its 
first spirit almost extinct for a series of years, Lisbon 
college began to flourish again about the year 1777, 
through the instrumentality of the Rev. John Preston 
and the Rev. Jerom Allen. The ruined parts of the 
building were repaired, and the whole made a com- 
fortable residence for twenty -five students, with proper 
superiors. 



LISBON COLLEGE. 23 



Towards the close of tlie seventeenth century, to 
supply in some measure the loss of Douay, and other 
continental colleges, the superiors made every exertion 
to increase the acconunodations of the college ; and they 
were enabled to extend the house to its present dimen- 
sions, and receive forty students, besides superiors. 
"When the French entered Lisbon in 1807, the members 
of the college were declared prisoners of war, but 
allowed considerable liberty. The college was occupied 
by 280 soldiers, who remained there nine months. Soon 
after their departure, fresh dangers threatened from the 
advance of Marshal Soult ; the students were sent to 
England as a measui'e of prudence, and the house was 
opened as a temporary academy for the education of 
young gentlemen. At the peace of 1814, the college 
was restored to its original purpose ; eleven new 
students for the church arrived from England, and the 
Rev. Edmund Winstanley was recalled, and again 
inscribed among the superiors of the establishment. 



iS0tatiU0t)m0nt0 of t!ie Utgnlat^. 

RELIGIOUS MEN. 

I. 

BENEDICTINS. 

1. 

BENEDICTIN PRIORY AND COLLEGE AT DOUAY. 
At the commencement of the seventeenth century, 
only one Benedictin remained in England, of the 
ancient congregation of that order. Father Sigebert 
Buckley ; who had made his profession at Westminster 
in the reign of Queen Mary. Several young men, 
however, from England had entered the congregations 
of Benedictin monks at Monte Cassino and Valladolid, 
with a view to serve upon the English Mission. Four 
of these returned to labour in England in 1603, 
others from time to time followed ; and all were aggre- 
gated by the authority of the Holy See to the original 
English congregation, represented by F. Buckley. The 



BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT DOUAY. 25 

vicar general of the order in England was F. Augustin 
Bradshaw, one of the first who had come over from the 
continent. He retired to Douay, and hired some sleep- 
ing apartments of the college of Anchin, or Anchienne, 
in that town, in the year 1605, and there began with 
a few of his brethren, and some scholars. But about a 
year after, he removed to a more commodious dwelling, 
which he hired of the Trinitarians. Here they became 
sufficiently numerous to keep choir, and discharge their 
other duties ; and they also admitted novices. For 
some years they suffered great poverty ; till by the 
munificence of the abbot of Vaast in Arras, Philip 
Caravel, a portion of land was purchased, and the 
foundations laid of a noble convent and college for the 
English monks ; which was completed and opened in 
1611, and called St. Gregory's. Their means of support 
were at first very scanty ; but on their presenting a 
petition to the good abbot Caravel, entreating him to 
grant them an increased allowance, he at once acceded 
to their request, and settled upon them a permanent 
revenue of twelve hundred florins. The foundation 
was confirmed by Pope Urban VIII. in 1626, for 
not more than twelve, nor less than nine monks, to 



26 



BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT DOUAY. 



be dependent upon the abbot and convent of St. Vaast 
or Vedast. 

At the French revolution, the college was seized in 
1793, and its members imprisoned, with circumstances 
of the most wanton cruelty. Their church was im- 
piously converted into a temple of the goddess of 
Reason ; and afterwards used for military stores. It 
became miserably dilapidated, and was taken down, and 
its materials sold about the year 1833. The monastery 
originally erected by the abbot of St. Vaast, was 
destroyed at an early period of the revolution. The 
handsome college, which the Benedictins had erected, 
not many years before, was let by the revolutionary 
government for a sugar manufactory, and thereby much 
damaged. It returned, however, with the greater part 
of the land, originally belonging to St. Gregory's, to 
that community at the restoration of Louis XVIII. 
They were then settled at Downside, in Somersetshire, 
and at one time made preparations for returning to 
Douay ; but they finally transferred the whole of their 
property in Douay to those who remained of the 
English monastery of St. Edmund in Paris, who had 
been ejected at the revolution. The Rev. Dr. Marsh 



BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT DIEULOUARD. 27 



and others accordingly took possession of the college 
at Douay in 1818, since which it has continued to 
educate students, many of whom are now labouring 
on the English mission. 

2. 

BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT DIEULOUARD OR 
DIEULEWART. 

The church at Dieulouard had been a collegiate 
church, till in the year 1606 the canons were removed 
by the Cardinal Charles of Lorrain to the cathedral of 
Nancy. Soon after their removal. Father Bradshaw, 
the vicar general of the English Benedictins, petitioned 
for the vacant college, and through the interest of an 
English canon of Remiremont named Pitts, a grant of 
the property was obtained. By means of this gen- 
tleman, some of the English Benedictins, who had 
entered different monasteries of Italy and Spain, were 
brought to Dieulouard ; where they were put in pos- 
session of the collegiate church, and a small farm in the 
neighbouring village of Jaillon. The Bishop of Verdun 
confirmed them in their possessions. The house of 



28 BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT DIEULOUARD. 



Dieulouart was prepared for their reception, in the 
best manner that their poverty could afford. But from 
their hard circumstances, it went on so slowly, that the 
monks did not come there to live conventually till the 
9th of August, 1608. 

About the year 1613, the cottages around the church 
were purchased, and an enclosure formed of nearly six 
acres ; the church was repaired and ornamented, and a 
conventual house built adjoining it. Other land was 
purchased, till the whole afforded a decent maintenance 
for twelve or fifteen persons in community. Here Mr. 
Gilford, of the Chillington family, took the habit, and 
subsequently became prior. Afterwards he was pro- 
moted to the first see in France, and became Archbishop 
of Rheims. He was a considerable benefactor; and 
gave to the monastery a valuable library and a quantity 
of household furniture. So rapidly did the numbers 
here increase, that in the year 1614 they amounted to 
eighty religious. Many of these were in high repute 
for their virtue and abilities ; and eight of them were 
at one time professors of the higher sciences in the 
college of the great abbey of Marchin. Other colleges 
solicited their services, and several bishops had recourse 



BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT DIEULOUARD. 29 

to their zeal and prudence for the introduction of 
salutary reforms into various communities. The mem- 
bers laboured with great zeal and success in planting 
and establishing missions in their native country : Father 
Alban Row was a distinguished martyr of their com- 
munity, under the penal laws. 

When the French Revolution broke out, the house 
was frequently alarmed and threatened. It was ha- 
rassed and oppressed with arbitrary impositions and 
exactions ; and no other reply could be obtained to any 
remonstrance, than that Englishmen must be rich. At 
length in the beginning of October, 1793, passports 
were with difficulty obtained for the younger students 
to return to England. On the 12th of the same month, 
the house was beset by five or six hundred armed men, 
between 9 and 10 at night. The superior and two others 
made their escape with much difficulty. Four were 
imprisoned the same night at Pont-a-Mausson, and all 
the property of the estabhshment taken possesion of in 
the name of the French nation. 



30 BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT ST. MALO. 



3. 

BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT ST. MALO. 

GifFord, called in religion, Father Gabriel of St. Mary, 
went into Brittany in January, 1611, with Father Barnes, 
to endeavour to procure an additional house for their 
order, as that of Dieulouard had not sufficient resources 
for its increasing inmates. They were favourably 
received at St. Malo, and the Bishop invited them to 
fix their residence near his cathedral. GiiFord received 
a prebend with its emoluments, for the benefit of the 
reKgious ; and in the autumn of the same year, six 
more monks arrived from Dieulouard, to take possession 
of their new establishment. A citizen of St. Malo, 
named Toutin, bestowed on them his house and chapel, 
vrith an annual allowance of corn. Gifibrd was appointed 
prior ; and the bishop assigned him a chair of divinity. 
Others of the community were employed in teaching, 
preaching and other sacred duties in the town. After 
some years, the parliament of Brittany was jealous of 
the monks, and the King Louis XIII. refused to allow 
a community of English in that sea port town, so near 
to England. In 1661 therefore, the monks determined 



BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT PARIS. 31 

to leave their house at St. Malo, which was disposed of, 
after much trouble. 

4. 

BENEDICTIN PRIORY AT PARIS. 

The origin of this foundation was in 1615. The 
abbess of Chelles, having requested a few monks from 
Dieulouard in 1611, to perform the religious offices of 
her convent, resolved soon after to procure for the 
monks a permanent establishment in Paris. She 
obtained six monks from Dieulouard in 1615, and placed 
them in a house called St. Andrew's, in the Faubourg 
St. Jacques. She assigned for their maintenance an 
annual sum of £150, secured a further sum for the rent 
of the premises, and frequently supplied them with 
provisions from her monastery. The prior was F. Brad- 
shaw ; but F. Waldegrave, who had originally come to 
Chelles, and was the superior of the monks there, 
became the real superior of the establishment at Paris, 
which was made dependent on that of Chelles. This 
continued only till the year 1618, when the community 
were desirous of establishing the independence of their 
house; and Dr. GifFord, then bishop of Archidal, in 



32 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY OF LAMBSPRING. 



1619, erected for them at his own expense, the monas- 
tery in Paris, afterwards known as St. Edmund's. They 
were at last fixed in the Faubourg St. Jacques, in the 
year 1642. Their church was built in 1674, and con- 
secrated in 1677 by the Abbot of Noailles, afterwards 
cardinal, and archbishop of Paris. King Louis XIV. 
gave towards their new building 7000 livres. Here they 
remained till 1793 ; when they were involved in the 
common destruction of the French Revolution. Those 
of its members who remained after the restoration of 
the Benedictin college and monastery of Douay to its 
former possessors, had that property made over to them 
by the monks of St. Gregory's, then at Downside, and 
took possession of it in 1818; since which time it has 
been called St. Edmund's, from their former establish- 
ment at Paris. 



5. 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY OF LANSPERG, OR 
LAMBSPRING. 



The abbey of Lansperg, or Lambspring is situated 
near Hildesheim in the kingdom of Hanover. It was 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY OF LAMBSPRING. 



originally a Benedictin nunnery; but the nuns were 
removed by Ferdinand, elector of Cologn, and lord of 
Hildesheim ; and on the 17th of November 1643, 
Clement Reyner, with two other monks, were ordered 
to take possession of it. These came from the esta- 
blishment at Dieulouard ; so that Lambspring was a 
filiation from that house. Reyner was appointed the 
first abbot of the new establishment. In the month of 
October 1644, he was joined by the Fathers Laurence 
Apple ton, Hilary Walker and Bernard Palmer. A 
body of rules was drawn up and adopted ; and thus was 
laid the foundation of a permanent and flourishing 
establishment. In the year following, the abbey of 
Lambspring, with the consent of the abbot, was sub- 
jected to the common constitutions of the English con- 
gregation of the Benedictin Order. The abbot was a 
^regular mitred abbot, and like all the prelates in 
Germany, enjoyed great privileges. But the president 
of the English congregation claimed and exercised the 
same jurisdiction over Lambspring, as over the other 
houses- of the congregation. 



34 



OTHER BENEDICTIN ESTABLISHMENTS. 



OTHER BENEDICTIN ESTABLISHMENTS IN 
GERMANY. 



The superiors of the German Benedictm congregation 
of Bursfield, on the 18th of May, 16^8, gave to the 
English fathers the abbey of Cismar, in the dukedom of 
Holstein; or rather lent it to them upon certain condi- 
tions, to be restored whenever the English monks should 
recover either Canterbury or St. Alban's, by the return 
of England to the Catholic faith. 

Other monasteries were made over to the English 
congregation on the like conditions ; as the monastery 
of Rintelin in Westphalia, of Dobran in the duchy of 
Mecklenburg, of Soharnabeck in Luneberg, and of 
Weine in the territory of Brunswick. None of these, 
however, continued in the possession of the English 
monks, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 



II. 

CARMELITES. 

BAREFOOTED CARMELITES AT TONGRES. 

A few years before the Frencli revolution, that is, 
about 1770, a small estabHsbment of Carmelites, or 
White Friars, was made at Tongres, by permission of 
the Prince Bishop of Liege. It was purchased by 
Mr. Firth, of the Prince Bishop, having belonged to 
the Jesuits, .until their suppression. The convent was 
enlarged ; and an order came from Rome for the En- 
glish Carmelites, who were dispersed in France, Brabant 
and Germany, to repair to Tongres. There were only 
five Carmelite friars upon the mission in England. 
Four were sent from France to supply the missions of 
the aged priests. The young men, who came to the 
convent were sent to Wurzburg, Heidelberg, Liege, and 
Antwerp. Tongres was the first convent for the 
English missions. This establishment, however, had 
hardly time to gain a footing ; for it was broken up in 
1793, in consequence of the French revolution. The 
convent is now destroyed ; its funds are gone, and all 
papers and documents relating to it, lost. 



III. 

CARTHUSIANS. 
CARTHUSIAN CONVENT AT NIEUPORT. 

The Carthusians who were driven from the monastery 
of Sheen, or Shene, in Surrey, had retired to Bruges. 
But in Queen Mary's reign, Father Chauncey, who had 
belonged to the Carthusian monastery" in London, left 
Bruges with several others, and came to London in 
June, 1555. In November, 1556, they recovered their 
ancient monastery at Shene, and F. Chauncey was made 
prior. On the accession of Elizabeth, they were per- 
mitted to leave the kingdom unmolested, being in 
number fifteen monks and three lay brothers. They 
returned to Bruges in 1559, and remained in the 
Flemish monastery of Carthusians, till in 1569 they 
obtained a house in the street St. Clare. 

They were obliged to leave Bruges in April, 1578, in 
consequence of the tumults raised by the Calvinists ; 
and being allowed to take with them what few effects 
they had saved from the plundering mob, they directed 
their course towards Douay. Here, however, they 
found the same confusion caused by the Calvinists, and 



CARTHUSIAN CONVENT AT NIEUPORT. 



37 



great jealousy of the English on the part of the inhabi- 
tants. They were ordered to quit the town in two 
hours ; and after somp ineffectual attempts to settle in 
France, they returned to the Low Countries, and arrived 
at the Carthusian convent at Louvain, on the 17th of 
July, 1578, where they were received and lodged by 
order of Don John of Austria, till the end of the year 
1590. The prior, F. Maurice Chauncey, went to Spain 
to solicit assistance for his monks, and obtained a 
pension from king Philip II. about the year 1566, 
which, however, was not regularly paid. He died at 
Paris, July 12, 1581, and was succeeded as prior by 
F. Walter Pytts. 

The community removed from Louvain to Antwerp, 
in the year 1590, and thence to Mechlin in 1591, where 
the prior had purchased a large house in the Bleeke 
street. There they resided till 1626, when a more con- 
venient house being prepared for them at Nieuport, 
they removed thither in September. A charter for 
their settlement at Nieuport was given at Brussels, by 
king Philip lY. on the 20th of June, 1626 ; and a grant 
made to them of about 250 acres of land in the neigh- 
bourhood, in lieu of the former pension of 1200 florins, 



38 CARTHUSIAN CONVENT AT NIEUPORT. 



granted by Philip II. Here they remained till their 
final suppression by the emperor Joseph II., in the 
year 1783, at which time the community was reduced 
to three professed monks, and two lay brothers. This 
was the only English community of religious men, who 
had continued without dispersion from the reign of 
Queen Mary. It possessed a considerable library, in 
which was a folio bible on vellum, written in the 12th 
century, and presented to the monastery at Shene by 
its founder, king Henry V. in 1416. This, with many 
other MSS. church ornaments and paintings, which had 
been brought over from England in 1559, was lost at 
the final suppression of the convent in 1783» 



IV. 

CISTERCIANS. 

CISTERCIAN MONKS OF THE REFORM OF 
LA TRAPPE. 

No English Cistercian community was established on 
the continent : but some notice may be introduced here 
of the more recent adventures of some English monks 
of the austere Reform of La Trappe. 

When the dissolution of religious houses took place 
in France at the revolution, the monks of La Trappe 
fled to the Canton of Fribourg, in Switzerland. Their 
resources, however, were so small, that some of them 
were compelled to retire to the Low Countries ; where 
they resided near Antwerp. The course of events 
obliged them to seek shelter in England; and they 
landed in this country, five in number, in the year 
1792. They found shelter and protection on the estate 
of Thomas Weld, Esq. of Lulworth castle, Dorsetshire, 
father of the late Cardinal Weld ; and were generously 
provided with a residence, near the castle, where they 
remained twenty -five years. In the year 1817, they 
returned to France. Their numbers had increased at 



40 CISTERCIAN MONKS. 



Lulworth to fifty -nine ; the greater part of whom were 
either English or Irish. They were generously received 
at the great and beautiful abbey of Melleray, originally 
founded and possessed by English Cistercian monks, 
situated near Nantes, in Brittany. Here the com- 
munity increased so rapidly, that in 1826, they num- 
bered 160 members ; two-thirds of whom were British 
subjects. 

A year after the second revolution in France, the 
religious community of Melleray was declared to be 
suppressed and dissolved, on the 5th of August, 1831. 
After much vexatious and insulting treatment, all those 
monks, who were British subjects, were compelled to 
leave the convent, and forced on board a steam boat on 
the Loire, on the 19th of November. They were con- 
veyed in the Hebe to the shores of Ireland ; whence a 
portion of them came to begin the establishment which 
they now possess in peace and security, in Charnwood 
Forest, Leicestershire, and which they have named 
Mount St. Bernard. 



V. 

DOMINICANS, OR PREACHING FRIARS. 

1. 

DOMINICAN CONVENT AND COLLEGE AT 
BORNHEIM. 

There were, at the dissolution of religious houses in 
England, forty three convents of Dominicans, or the 
order of preachers, commonly called in England Black 
Friars. But the English Dominicans acquired no 
establishment on the continent, till the year 1658, when 
the convent at Bornheim, near Antwerp, was founded 
for them, by the Baron of Bornheim. Its estabhshment 
was principally owing to Phihp Howard, third son of 
Henry Lord Mowbray, who had been placed with the 
Dominicans at Cremona, and in a few years took the 
habit of the order, and made his rehgious profession 
among them. He endeavoured to recover the glory of 
his order, by completing the foundation at Bornheim, 
and became the first prior of the new establishment. In 

F 



42 DOMINICANS AT BORNHEIM. 

May, 1675, Father Howard was promoted to the dignity 
of cardinal ; and went to Rome, accompanied part of the 
way by his uncle, Viscount Stafford, who was beheaded 
in 1680, his son, the Honourable John Stafford, and 
other distinguished persons. At Rome, Cardinal Howard 
was appointed protector of the English nation, and 
chief director of the affairs of the English catholics. 
He died probably in the year 1690. He founded also 
another convent in Rome for the English Dominicans, 
but it w^as suppressed after a brief existence. The reli- 
gious at Bornheim afterwards kept a celebrated college 
for the education of youth ; while they trained up 
zealous and learned ecclesiastics of their order. They 
continued to flourish, till they were compelled to fly in 
1794, on account of the French invasion of the Low 
Countries. 

The mansion of Carshalton in Surrey was purchased 
for the refugees from Bornheim, of the order of 
St. Dominic ; and here a school was commenced by 
them in 1795, under the direction of Fathers Wilson 
and Atkinson. This they carried on till the year 1810, 
when they removed to their present establishment at 
Hinckley in Leicestershire. 



DOMINICANS AT LOUVAIN. 43 



2. 
DOMINICAN COLLEGE AT LOUVAIN. 

This was a small establishment, destined solely for 
the young religious of Bornheim, to pursue their studies 
in philosophy and divinity. On this account, it enjoyed 
the privileges of the university of Louvain. It was 
broken up, of course, when the house at Bornheim was 
abandoned in 1794. 



YL 

FRANCISCANS. 

CONVENT OF FRANCISCAN RECOLLECTS AT 
DOUAY. 

The Franciscan friars possessed about eighty con- 
vents in England, before the Reformation, and their 
order produced many eminent men among us. In the 
year 1614, or the year following, a Douay priest, John 
Gennings, anxious to revive the order of St. Francis 
among the English, entered the noviceship, and made 
his profession before the commissary general of the 
English province of Franciscans. He persuaded several 
students at Douay and the other English colleges, to 
follow his example ; who, through his interest passed 
through their noviceship at Ypres. Several promising 
young men thus became Franciscans : and laid the 
foundation of a small convent at a house procured for 
them at Douay, about the year 1617. Father John 
Gennings became their first provincial superior, when 
their numbers had so increased, that, by an express bull 
from Rome, they were made a distinct and independent 



FRANCISCANS. 45 

body. Though they were extremely poor, destitute of 
all endowment, and depending on alms for their support, 
they contrived to erect a handsome church. Their 
object was to prepare additional labourers for the 
English mission. In 1624 they had fifteen resident 
members. They had no other school than for the 
religious of the house : but enjoyed in that respect, the 
privileges of the university of Douay. The establish- 
ment subsisted in a flourishing condition, till the French 
Revolution put an end to it in 1793. All the friars who 
resided there at that time found means to escape out of 
France in disguise ; whereas the members of all the 
other English establishments in France were seized, 
imprisoned, and most barbarously treated. 



YIT. 

SOCIETY OF JESUS. 

1. 

JESUIT COLLEGE AT ST. OMER. 

The English Fathers of the Society of Jesus had first 
a school in Normandy, erected through the interest of 
Father Persons, in 1583, with a pension of one hundred 
pounds, for the education of youth, granted by the 
Duke of Guise. This, however, ceasing at the death 
of the Duke, F. Persons conceived the design of a 
college at St. Omer, which was completed in 1594. It 
was accomplished by donations from the king of Spain, 
and others, whose main intention was that youth should 
be there prepared for the secular colleges recently 
established in Spain. It was governed at first by three 
Flemish rectors in succession ; and the first English 
rector was F. William Baldwin. It became the prin- 
cipal establishment of the English Jesuits ; and so con- 
tinued till their Society was suppressed in France. It 
then was made over to the English secular clergy, in 



JESUITS' NOVICIATE AT WATTEN. 47 



quality of a royal college ; and it so remained till its 
dissolution in 1793. 

2. 

NOVICIATE OF THE ENGLISH JESUITS AT 
WATTEN. 

Watten is situated two leagues from St. Omer, on 
the canal leading to Dunkirk. About the year 1570, 
the monastery of canons regular at this place was sup- 
pressed. The bulk of its revenue went for the endow- 
ment of a bishopric at St. Omer; and the remainder 
was assigned for the maintenance of a religious com- 
munity, to be selected by the bishop, and to reside in 
the house, from which the canons had been ejected. It 
was not, however, till thirty years after, when Blase 
became bishop of St. Omer, that any measures were 
taken to fulfil this intention. He conceived the idea 
of employing the house for preparing missioners for 
England: and the project was proposed to F. Persons, 
and finally laid before Pope Paul V. who approved of 
the house being transferred, with its endowment of 
three thousand florins, to the Jesuits, for a noviciate. 
The plan, however, met with delay and opposition from 



48 JESUITS' NOVICIATE AT WATTEN. 

the archduke Albert ; and F. Persons, unable to obtain 
an immediate settlement at Watten, hired a house at 
Louvain, an ancient residence of the knights of Malta. 
A devout Spanish lady, Aloysia de Caravajal, had 
placed a large sum at his disposal for the foundation of 
a noviciate for the society. With this, he established 
the house at Louvain in 1607 ; and F. Thomas Talbot 
was sent from Rome to take charge of it. In 1612, the 
foundations of a college were added to this noviciate ; 
but the great increase of the members, and the appear- 
ance of an infectious disorder among the novices in 
1614, induced the fathers to seek a new residence at 
Liege. On the 1st of November in that year, the 
noviciate was removed thither, under the direction of 
F. John Gerard ; and settled in a suitable building, 
which had been purchased, near the walls of the town, 
with about ten acres of land. In 1616, however, they 
built a regular college, and opened it with a school of 
philosophy, and one of divinity. The establishment 
flourished, and had become important, when by the 
death of the archduke Albert in 1621, the fathers were 
enabled to reside in their house at Watten, which had 
been confirmed to them in 1611. In the course of the 



JESUITS' COLLEGE AT LIEGE. 49 



following year, the noviciate was transferred from 
Liege to Watten, under F. Henry Silisdon, while 
the college remained at Liege, under the superin- 
tendence of F. Owen Shelly. In 1624, the inmates 
amounted to twelve in the noviciate at Watten. It 
continued tiU the suppression of the Society of Jesus; 
and served for a retreat for aged and infirm members of 
the society, as well as for a noviciate. After the Jesuits 
were suppressed in France, those of Watten removed 
to the professed house at Ghent, in 1765, and remained 
there till the dissolution of the society in 1773. 

3. 

COLLEGE OF ENGLISH JESUITS AT LIEGE 

At the coUege of the English Jesuits at St. Omer, 
were taught grammar, poetry, and rhetoric ; but they 
procured another establishment at Liege, where the 
students pursued the courses of philosophy and divinity. 
It was begun in 1616, completed and partly endowed in 
1622, by George Talbot of Grafton, afterwards Earl 
of Shrewsbury ; when Father Thomas Gerard was 
appointed its first rector. In 1626, through the interest 
of the same George Talbot, the Duke of Bavaria, who 

G 



50 JESUITS' PROFESSED HOUSE AT GHENT. 

was prince bishop of Liege, settled an annual pension 
on this college, of the interest of two hundred thousand 
florins. The mansion displayed its spacious buildings 
on the heights of the city, amidst groups of stately 
trees. The college subsisted on its original footing till 
the suppression of the Society in 1773. It then changed 
its name into that of an English academy, and enlarged 
its plan of education. It thus remained in the hands of 
the same proprietors, till the French occupied Liege in 
1794. Thomas Weld, Esq. of Lulworth Castle, had 
been brought up at this college ; and his sons were its 
inmates in 1793. This gentleman offered the Jesuits an 
asylum at Stonyhurst, where they have been ever since 
established. 



PROFESSED HOUSE OF THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
AT GHENT. 



In the year 1622, Ann, Countess of Arundel laid the 
foundation of a house for the Jesuits at Ghent. It was 
styled the Professed House ; and was destined chiefly 
as a place of retirement for such of their members as 



JESUITS' PROFESSED HOUSE AT GHENT. 51 



were aged and infirm, or unable to perform the active 
duties of the society. It served also for others, who 
were preparing to labour in their various functions. The 
house was small, and made but little appearance. In 
1765, the noviciate was removed to this place at Ghent, 
from Watten : but both were dissolved at the suppres- 
sion of the Jesuits, by Pope Clement XIV. in 1773. 



ileUgtott0 Wionitn. 

I. 

AUGUSTINIANS. 
1. 

PRIORY OF CANONESSES OF ST. AUGUSTIN AT 
LOUVATN. 

The monastery of Augustinian nuns in Louvain was 
begun on the 10th of February, 1609, by Mrs. Mary 
Wiseman and several other English ladies, who had been 
professed in the monastery of St. Ursula, in the same 
town. With the approbation of the archbishop of the 
diocese, they purchased a building, and converted it 
into a monastery in honour of the conception of our 
Blessed Lady, and of St. Michael, under the title of St. 
Monica's. They were at first seventeen nuns and two 
lay sisters. On the 16th of November, Mrs. Mary 
Wiseman was elected the first prioress. These pious 
ladies had no foundation to begin with ; but came forth 
from St. Ursula's with only their habits, and some small 
articles of furniture, and no more than five shillings in 



CANONESSES OF ST. AUGUSTIN AT LOUVAIN. 53 

their purse. All they could depend upon were some 
small annuities promised by their friends : but they 
cheerfully relied upon Divine Providence, and their 
hopes were never disappointed. Two friends in par- 
ticular generously assisted them, Dr. Caesar Clement, 
an English priest, who was dean of the church of St. 
Gudule, in Brussels, and Mr. Thomas Worthington, of 
Blainscoe, in Lancashire, then resident at Louvain. 
Their church was finished in 1624, and consecrated by 
the archbishop of Mechlin, on Trinity Sunday, under 
the title of the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed 
Lady. These nuns received young ladies for education ; 
and it is recorded to their honour in the Douay diary 
that they hved in a pious, holy, and religious manner. 
So they continued till the disastrous period of the 
French Revolution, when the Low Countries were 
invaded, in the year 1794. Then the members of this 
community were obliged to fly ; and quitted Louvain 
on the 28th of June. They proceeded to Rotterdam, 
and embarked for England. They landed at Green- 
wich July 18th, and proceeded to Hammersmith, where 
they continued in the house then called the ladies' 
school, till the year 1800, when they removed to 



54 



CANONESSES OF ST. AUGUSTIN AT BRUGES. 



Amesbury in Wiltshire, to a house built upon part of 
the ancient Benedictin nunnery. But in the year fol- 
lowing, they finally settled at Spetisbury House, near 
Blandford, Dorsetshire, where they have ever since 
been established. 



2, 



PRIORI OF CANONESSES OF ST. AUGUSTIN AT 
BRUGES. 

The number of postulants for admission into the 
Convent of Augustinian nuns at Louvain being very 
great, it was determined to purchase a house at Bruges, 
and begin a filiation there from Louvain. Thither nine 
of the religious proceeded on the 14th of September, 
1629, under the direction of the Reverend Mother 
Frances Stanford. The education of young ladies 
formed part of their duties. For several years they 
suffered much from want of funds, and from the small- 
ness of their habitation ; and were obliged to receive a 
small pension from the mother house at Louvain. In 
time however they found friends ; and were enabled by 
liberal donations to discharge the debts, which they had 
been necessitated to contract, and also to enlarge their 



CANONESSES OF ST. AUGUSTIN AT BRUGES. 55 

house. When Lady Lucy Herbert was prioress of this 
community, she rebuilt their church, which was beau- 
tiful, but small. Thus by degrees, their establishment 
increased in numbers, and flourished exceedingly. 

When the French invaded the Netherlands at the 
Revolution, these religious on an alarm of danger, 
quitted their house on the first of May, 1794, and 
retired for safety to Sluys, where they remained five 
weeks. 

They ventured, however, to return to Bruges; but 
were permitted to remain there only a fortnight, before 
the approach of the French obliged them again to fly. 
They first went to Antwerp, and thence proceeded to 
Rotterdam, where they arrived on the 29th of June. 
They embarked for England on the 5th of July, and 
landed in London on the 12th of the same month. 
They were kindly received in their native land, and 
generously invited to take up their abode at Hengrave 
Hall, in Suffolk, the seat of Sir Thomas Gage, Bart. 
Their superior was Mrs. Mary More, who repaired 
with her spiritual daughters to the hospitable mansion 
of Hengrave, where they were enabled to practise all 
their religious observances, and also to continue their 



56 



CANONESSES OF ST. AUGUSTIN AT PARIS. 



school for young ladies. Here they remained till the 
peace of Amiens, when Mrs. More returned to their 
convent at Bruges, which they had repurchased. That 
excellent lady died in the spring of 1807. The establish- 
ment remained with very little molestation, and con- 
tinues to flourish, with a high reputation, both in 
England and the Low Countries. 



CANONESSES OF ST. AUGUSTIN AT PARIS. 

This establishment originated with six English young 
ladies, who had been educated in the French abbey of 
the order of St. Augustin at Douay. Aspiring to 
greater perfection in a religious life, they resolved to 
begin a monastery of the same order ; and under the 
guidance of one of their number. Dame Letitia Maria 
Tredway, having obtained the necessary powers of 
Cardinal Richelieu, they settled in the year 1633, in the 
Fauxbourg St. Michel at Paris, being under the direc- 
tion of the clergy of Douay college. But finding this 
situation inconvenient, they soon removed to the 
Fauxbourg St. Antoine ; and finally purchased a house 
in the Rue des Fosse's St. Victor, in the year 1639. 



CANONESSES OF ST. AUGUSTIN AT PARIS. 57 



Here they built their monastery, which was called 
Mount Sion, and their church, which was dedicated 
in honour of St. Augustin, by Dr. Smith, Bishop 
of Chalcedon, who resided for greater security in Paris. 
He spent the last thirteen years of his life in an apart- 
ment belonging to this convent ; and there died in 1655, 
leaving a considerable legacy to the community, who, 
placed a monument to his memory in their church. 
Dame Tredway governed the house as lady abbess, 
during the space of forty years; but afterwards the 
superior was chosen for four years only, though she 
might be re-elected at the expiration of that term. 
During many years, this community was numerous and 
flourishing ; receiving members successively from all 
the noble Catholic families of England, and educating 
numbers of young English ladies in Catholic principles 
and practice, at the time when their religion was 
proscribed in England. This house was honoured by 
frequent visits from the Stuart princes, during their 
exile in France, especially James II. and Marie d'Este ; 
and continued to prosper tiU 1793, when aU. British 
property was confiscated. The convent was then 
declared a house of detention, and the community, 

H 



58 CANONESSES OF THE H. SEPULCHRE AT LIEGE. 

with many other ladies, both religious and secular, 
remained for seventeen months prisoners within its 
walls. They suffered much misery, anxiety, and dis- 
tress, during the remainder of the Revolution. At 
length, however, they regained their liberty and the 
restoration of their house, through the protection of the 
consuls Buonaparte and Lebrun. They resumed their 
religious habit and exercises, received again some 
English members, and re-opened their school, which 
has continued to flourish ever since. 

4. 

CANONESSES OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE AT 
LIEGE. 

This establishment was originally founded in the 
year 1616 by the Hon. Susanna Hawley, with very 
slender means. It was begun in the convent of the 
suppressed Jesuitesses at Liege ; but in 1624, the com- 
munity obtained of the Pope and the prince bishop of 
Liege the house in which they continued till the French 
Revolution. It had formerly belonged to some monks 
of the hospital of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 
who had been suppressed. Here their excellent method 



CANONESSES OF THE H. SEPULCHRE AT LIEGE. 59 

of education and their virtuous conduct rendered them 
eminent ; and so they continued till the French invaded 
the neighbourhood of Liege in 1794. On the 29th of 
May, in that year, these religious left Liege, and after 
many hindrances and disagreeable accidents, they arrived 
safe at Greenwich, on the 18th of August following. In 
1795, they settled at Holme, near Market Weighton, a 
seat of the Langdale family in Yorkshire : but removed 
in 1797 to Dean House, near Salisbury. Thence in 
1800, they came to their present mansion at Newhall, 
near Chelmsford, in Essex. 



11. 

BENEDTCTINS. 

I. 

BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT BRUSSELS. 

The English Benedictin ahbey at Brussels was the first 
monastery of English nuns founded on the continent 
after the dissolution of religious houses in England at 
the Reformation ; and it is curious to observe that its 
members were the first who returned to England after 
the French Revolution. It was originally projected 
by Lady Mary Percy, daughter of Thomas, Earl of 
Northumberland. A bull was obtained of Pope 
Clement VIII. for beginning a Benedictin nunnery 
at Brussels, to be under the archbishop of Mechlin, and 
not subject to the Order. In the year 1598, the pur- 
chase of a house was made in Brussels, which belonged 
to Sir Rowland Longinus, viscount of Bergues. To aid 
her in this pious foundation, Lady Mary Percy had 
obtained from the Benedictin monastery of St. Peter in 
Rheims, Madam Joanna Berkley, who was a professed 
nun in that house, who came to Brussels, and joined 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT BRUSSELS. 61 



Lady Mary, with several other young English ladies, 
who aspired to a religious life. Possession of the house 
which had heen purchased was obtained on the 11th of 
July, 1598. Other devout ladies joined the former ; 
and on the 14th of November, 1599, Madam Joanna 
Berkley was consecrated the first abbess of the new 
monastery, by Mathias van Houe, archbishop of 
Mechlin. Eight ladies were invested with the habit 
shortly after, and began their noviceship with great 
fervour. Lady Mary Percy was the second abbess, 
followed by other ladies of ancient English families. 
The statutes of this new monastery were drawn 
up by an assembly of prelates, abbots, and divines, 
well experienced in monastic discipline. They were 
approved of and confirmed by the Pope, in the year 
1612; and delivered to the religious, with the con- 
ditions of their being subject to the archbishop, and 
having their spiritual director of the Society of Jesus ; 
whose members had much laboured for the spiritual and 
temporal good of their monastery from its commence- 
ment. 

This sanctuary of virtue and piety had existed nearly 
two hundred years, when it was assailed by the votaries 



62 BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT CAMBRAY. 



of anarchy and infidelity. The peaceful inmates were 
compelled to quit their house, and seek some new 
establishment. They quitted Brussels June 22, 1794, 
passed through Antwerp, and arrived at Rotterdam on 
the 26th. There they embarked for England on the 
2nd of July, and landed on the 6th at St. Catherine's 
stairs, near the Tower. They remained only three days 
in London, leaving it on the 9th of July for "Win- 
chester, where a house had been provided for them, in 
St. Peter's street, a retired and healthy part of the city. 
There they have continued ever since, engaged in the 
education of young ladies. 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT CAMBRAY. 

The monastery of English nuns of the order of 
St. Benedict at Brussels, proved a nursery to others. 
The first filiation from it was begun at Cambray by 
Mrs. Frances Gawen. Some of the Benedictin fathers 
requested of the archbishop of Mechlin and Lady Mary 
Percy, the abbess of the English monastery at Brussels, 
that some of the religious might begin a house of their 
order at Cambray, to be placed under their direction. 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT CAMBRAY. 63 

This being granted, tlie Rev. Dame Frances Gawen, 
Dame Potentiana Deacon, and Dame Yiviana Yaxley, 
professed nuns of the convent at Brussels, were con- 
ducted to Cambray for that purpose by Father Rudisend 
Barlow, prior of the English Benedictin monastery at 
Paris. This took place in the year 1623. The house 
in which they were located was the refuge of the 
Benedictin abbey of Femy, a monastery not far from 
Cambray, which had been begun by English, but was 
then in ruins. Nor was this house at Cambray much 
better. There were only four walls standing without 
any partitions, and the walls broken in many places ; so 
that the place cost £500 to make it habitable. At first 
it was only lent to them ; but in 1638, it was made over 
to them as a gift. The three ladies took possession, 
December 24th, 1623. The archbishop himself received 
them there, celebrated the first Mass, and dedicated 
their convent to our B. Lady of Consolation. On the 
1st of January, 1625, the same prelate professed nine 
other ladies, and placed the community entirely under 
the superintendence of the English Benedictin fathers. 
The first abbess was Dame Frances Gawen, who 
resigned this dignity after six years, and was succeeded 



64 BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT CAMBRAY. 

by Dame Catherine Gascoigne, who governed the com- 
munity thirty -four years, with great piety and prudence. 
These religious educated young ladies, and lived by 
their own work and other resources, engaged in the 
most edifying manner in the exercises of religion and 
virtue. 

On the 18th of October, 1793, a body of soldiers 
entered the convent, and hurried away its inmates with- 
out even a change of clothes, to Compeigne, whither 
they were carried in open carts, amidst insults and 
barbarous usage. They were imprisoned in the infirmary 
of the convent, formerly of the Visitation ; in another 
part of which were confined seventeen Carmelite nuns 
of the convent of St. Denis. These were led out to 
execution only a few days after the arrival of the 
English nuns, who for a long time daily expected the 
same fate. They suffered greatly during their confine- 
ment, from the want of bread, fuel, and clothing. They 
received however some articles of wearing apparel, 
which had belonged to the poor Carmelites who were 
guillotined, which to them were most valuable treasures 
and holy relics. They were twenty in number, besides 
their chaplain, F. Augustin "Walker, and another priest. 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT GHENT. 65 

Of these, the reverend chaplain and four of the nuns 
sunk under the rigours of their imprisonment, early in 
the year 1794. At length they obtained their liberty, 
and on the 24th of April, 1795, procured passports to 
return to their native country. On the 3rd of May they 
sailed from Calais, and on the 4th arrived in London. 
No sooner was their arrival known, than a lady of 
distinction charitably provided a house for them at the 
west end of the town, where she visited them, and 
afforded them every comfort in her power. Upon the 
invitation of the Rev. Dr. Brewer, they proceeded to 
Wootton, near Liverpool, where they undertook a 
school for the education of young ladies. In the year 
1808 these religious removed to Abbot's Salford, near 
Stratford on Avon. There they remained, and con- 
tinued their school, till 1838, when they entered upon 
their present residence at Stanbrook, near Worcester. 

3. 

BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT GHENT. 

Four nuns of the monastery of English Benedictins 
at Brussels, Eugenia Poulton, Magdalen Digby, Mary 
Roper, and Lucy KnatchbuU, on account of various 

I 



66 BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT GHENT. 



inconveniences arising from the increased number of 
the establishment, became anxious to form a new foun- 
dation. After two years of consultation with several 
fathers, they addressed the archbishop of Mechlin on 
the subject. He entered into their plan ; but the 
abbess, though she approved of the design, was unwil- 
ling to part with either of the ladies, with whom it had 
originated. These, however, ultimately succeeded in 
obtaining the commission ; and the protection of both 
the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of Ghent having 
been secured, a small house was taken for the new 
colony in that city. On the 16th of January, 16^4, the 
four religious, with two novices, left Brussels, and 
entered Ghent the following morning, destitute of all 
means of support, and wholly relying on Divine Provi- 
dence. In a few days the Bishop of Ghent repaired 
to the new convent, and assured its fervent inmates of 
his paternal protection. The suffrages of the members 
were then taken, and Dame Lucy Knatchbull was 
unanimously chosen abbess. She was solemnly blessed 
and installed on the feast of their holy patron St. Bene- 
dict, in the same year 1624. In the following month, 
these nuns were joined by two others ; and before the 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT GHENT. 67 

end of the year, they numbered two and twenty inmates. 
By their accession, the means for their support in- 
creased: but it also became necessary to seek more 
extensive accommodation. They purchased ground 
near the Benedictin abbey of St. Peter, where they 
erected a house and a church; and removed to their 
new habitation on the 5th of August, 1628. During 
the exile of Charles II. both the king and his brother, 
the Duke of York, frequently visited this monastery. 
Charles made them numerous presents, and settled on 
them an annuity of £500. James II. was converted at 
Ghent to the Catholic religion, and on his succeeding 
to the throne, intended to establish them as the first 
monastery in his kingdom. 

The community appear to have remained in the same 
house at Ghent, until the year 1794. The chief maga- 
zine of corn and bread of the late Duke of York was in 
their convent, during the campaign in the Low Coun- 
tries. They received on every occasion the kindest 
protection from his royal highness, and the greatest 
respect and civility from the British officers and soldiers 
in general. Having received a friendly intimation from 
an English nobleman, that they could no longer remain 



68 BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT LAMBSPRING. 

in Ghent with safety, they quitted it in separate parties, 
and by the care and generosity of a gentleman in Lan- 
cashire, were enabled to reach their native country. 
They were assembled again in a temporary residence in 
Lancashire, and in 1795 settled at Preston, where they 
opened their school for young ladies. In the early part 
of the year 1811, the community removed to the 
venerable building, of quite monastic appearance, 
which they had purchased, and where they have 
ever since contmued, Caverswall Castle, near Stone, 
Staffordshire. 

4. 

BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT LAMBSPRING. 

The Benedictin abbey at Lambspring was originally 
a nunnery of the same Order, founded in the ninth cen- 
tury. It was given to the English congregation of the 
Order of St. Benedict, in the year 1630, as an establish- 
ment for its female members. But by the authority, 
or influence of Ferdinand, elector of Cologn, and 
lord of Hildesheim, the nuns were afterwards removed ; 
it was taken possession of by Enghsh Benedictin 
monks. 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT PARIS. 



5. 

BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT PARIS. 

This was a filiation from Cambray, as that of Cambray 
had been from Brussels. Dame Clementina Gary, 
daughter of Viscount Falkland, who was a religious in 
the convent at Cambray, coming to Paris, with per- 
mission, for the cure of a disorder, in the year 1651, 
obtained by means of Henrietta Maria, Queen of the 
unfortunate Charles I. and of the Abbe Montague, that 
a monastery of Benedictin nuns should be established 
in Paris. Five nuns from Cambray were sent to assist 
her in beginning this pious foundation, two of whom 
returned afterwards to Cambray. Dame Bridget More 
was installed the first abbess ; the foundress Dame 
Clementina Cary having out of humility declined 
that dignity. After occupying Rye difierent houses, 
the community in March 1664, with the assistance of 
their friends, purchased the convent which they finally 
occupied in the Rue du Champ de L'Alouette, Faux- 
bourg St. Marcel. 

On the 3rd of October, 1793, they were made 
prisoners in their own house, and deprived of all 



70 BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT PARIS. 



communication with persons out of it. A month 
after, this convent was turned into a common jail, and 
filled with prisoners. Here the poor nuns endured the 
greatest hardships, and daily witnessed the most dis- 
tressing scenes. Whole families at a time were dragged 
from their convent to the guillotine ; and they expected 
no better fate for themselves. But on the 1 5th of July, 
they were removed in the night, in six coaches to the 
Castle of Vincennes. Here they were locked up by 
day, as well as by night, in narrow cells, without being 
able to see out of their windows. After four months of 
this rigorous confinement, they were taken back to 
Paris in a cart; and were at length brought to the 
convent of Austin nuns in the Fosse St. Victor, who 
were also prisoners in their own house, but had been 
less harshly treated. On the first of March, 1795, they 
regained their liberty, but could only recover part of 
their linen and furniture. By the sale of these, they 
raised supplies for their journey ; and having Obtained 
passports with much difficulty, they left Paris June 19th, 
and arrived in London July 5, 1795. They settled in 
the same year at MarnhuU, in Dorsetshire. In 1807, 
they removed to Cannington, near Bridgewater; in 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT PONTOISE. 



71 



1836 they came to Aston Hall, Staffordshire, and in 
1837, finally settled at St. Benedict's Priory, Great 
Heywood, Staffordshire. 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT PONTOISE. 

The convent of English Benedictin nuns at Pontoise 
was a filiation from their establishment at Ghent, as 
that also had been from the abbey at Brussels. At first 
they were established at Boulogne, in 1652, whither six 
religious were sent, one of whom appears to have been 
a lay sister. This new foundation was principally ac- 
complished through the munificence of Sir Richard 
Foster, treasurer to the queen mother, who bestowed 
upon the community 20,000 livres. The bishop, after 
examining their constitutions, approved them ; and 
they were encouraged and patronized both by his lord- 
ship, and the inhabitants of the town. Their situation, 
however, at Boulogne was rendered unpleasant by other 
circumstances, which induced them to remove to Pon- 
toise in 1658. They obtained a settlement there by the 
interest of the Abbe Montague ; their former bene- 
factor, Sir Richard Foster adding 30,000 livres to his 



72 BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT DUNKIRK. 

former donation, for this purpose. The first abbess 
was Catherine Wigmore, who died in 1656, while the 
community was still at Boulogne. Many ladies distin- 
guished by birth as well as piety, retired from the world 
to serve God in the monastery of Pontoise ; some of 
them of royal extraction. Their last abbess was 
daughter of N. Clavering, Esq. of Callaly Castle, 
Northumberland. The necessities of the convent be- 
came so urgent at that time, that it became necessary to 
break up the establishment ; and the archbishop gave 
permission to the religious to retire to any other con- 
vents. The abbess, with six other nuns^ retired to the 
community of their order at Dunkirk, in the year 1784; 
and were afterwards joined by others of their former 
companions, where they continued in peace and happi- 
ness till the fatal event of the French revolution. 

7. 

BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT DUNKIRK. 

The convent of English Benedictin nuns at Ghent 
having exceedingly increased in numbers, the abbess. 
Lady Mary KnatchbuU, niece of Lady Lucy, their first 
abbess, obtained permission of the English government 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT DUNKIRK. 73 



in 1662, to establish a new convent in the town of 
Dunkirk, which was then in possession of the Enghsh. 
When King Charles II. and his brother James, then 
Duke of York, were in exile in the Low Countries, 
they had received great hospitality from the community 
at Ghent ; and the abbess had rendered valuable service 
to the royal cause. The king, after his restoration, 
acknowledged his obligations in a letter to the abbess, 
and made some presents to the community, vdth great 
pi'omises of support and assistance. Finding however 
that his majesty did nothing further, the lady abbess, 
Mary KnatchbuU, by the advice of her friends, and with 
consent of the bishop, left Ghent at the end of October 
1661, with Rev. Mr. Gerrard, Dame Mary Carrille, and 
a lay sister, and proceeded to England, to surprise the 
king by a personal visit. His majesty received her with 
great favour, and assigned her £3000 ; besides which 
she received many valuable presents. Having obtained 
the sanction of the English government, twelve of the 
community of Ghent removed to Dunkirk, on the 8th 
of May, 1662, Most of these were of ancient families, 
as Nevill, Fortescue, Savage, Stanley, Webb, Heneage, 
Carrille, Pordage, Eyre, and others. They purchased a 



74 BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT DUNKIRK. 



house, with the assistance of several English noblemen, 
on the site of which they built a complete and handsome 
convent. Dame Mary Carrille, or Caryl, presided over 
this community for the first two years, as prioress ; and 
then being elected abbess, governed them forty-nine 
years, leaving at her departure forty-six choir nuns. 
She was succeeded by abbess Fleetwood, who died in 
1748, abbess Termor, who died in 1764, abbess Engle- 
field, who died in 1777, and abbess Prujean. Under 
the government of this lady, the dreadful effects of the 
i French Revolution were experienced by this com- 

munity, as by every other religious establishment. 

In the fatal year 1793, the church of their convent 
was seized upon for the meetings of the Jacobin club of 
Dunkirk; and on the 13th of October, these ladies were 
turned out of their convent at a few hours' notice, and 
their property sequestered. They had no time, nor 
conveyances, to bring away even their clothes, but were 
obliged to hurry their departure, and pass through the 
ranks of soldiers to the coaches sent for them. They 
were conveyed to the convent of the Poor Clares, in the 
same town ; but these underwent the same treatment 
only four days later, and both communities were sent off 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT DUNKIRK. 75 

to the Poor Clares at Gravelines. They were conveyed 
in a wretched boat, which could scarcely contain them 
and the fifty soldiers who guarded them, so that they 
were in great danger of being drowned. Some months 
after, they recovered some part of their poor clothing ; 
but the three communities thus imprisoned together, 
endured the greatest hardships, were kept in continual 
alarm, and must have perished through want, had they 
not received charitable supplies from charitable friends, 
particularly of Gravelines. In this state they barely 
existed for eighteen months : indeed two of the Bene- 
dictin community died during their confinement. The 
Convention declared them at liberty, while they kept 
them in confinement ; and it was not till after repeated 
applications, that they obtained permission to return to 
England. At length they embarked at Calais, on the 
30th of April, and arrived in London, May 3rd, 1795. 
They betook themselves to their several friends, till a 
house could be provided for them. On the 8th of May, 
however, the abbess Prujean, with some of the com- 
munity, took possession of the convent at Hammer- 
smith ; but the whole community did not assemble till 
September 29, of the same year. Since that time 



76 



BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT IPRES. 



they have continued all their conventual duties, and 
received young ladies for education. The abbess 
Prujean died in 1812, and was succeeded by the abbess 
Mary Placida Messenger. Since her decease in 1828, 
the community has been governed by the abbess Mary 

Placida Selby. 

8. 
BENEDICTIN ABBEY AT IPRES, 

This was another filiation from Ghent. It was 
founded in the year 1665, on the 22nd of May. The 
first abbess was Lady Mary Beaumont, who was 
solemnly blessed in the cathedral of Ipres, by the 
bishop, Martin de Praet, in the year 1669. The abbess 
KnatchbuU of the Benedictin abbey at Ghent, whence 
this colony had proceeded, had always intended this 
house for a community of Irish Benedictin nuns ; and 
accordingly, in the year 1683, she invited some of the 
Irish religious, professed in diiferent monasteries of the 
English congregation, to the establishment at Ipres. 
From that time it became an Irish establishment, 
and removed to Dublin in 1688 by invitation of king 
James II. In 1690, the community returned to Ipres, 
where they have ever since continued. 



III. 

BEIDGETTINS. 

BRIDGETTIN CONVENT OF SION HOUSE. 

The convent of the Order of St. Bridget is the only 
English nunnery which has continued without disper- 
sion since the Reformation. There was only one great 
monastery of the Bridgettin Order in England. It was 
called Sion House, and situated in Middlesex, near the 
Thames, about ten miles from London; having been 
founded by king Henry V. in 1413. It was one of the 
first houses dissolved by Henry VIII. Queen Mary 
restored it to its former owners, and founded the monas- 
tery anew, in the fourth and fifth years of her reign, 
recalling its members from Dermond in Flanders, 
whither they had retired. But on the accession of 
Elizabeth, it was again dissolved. The nuns, twenty in 
number, having obtained a safe conduct of Elizabeth, 
through the Spanish ambassador, the Duke of Feria, 
left England in 1559, with their abbess, Catherine 
Palmer, and first retired to their former asylum at 
Dermond. In 1563, they removed to a house bestowed 
on them by the Duchess of Parma in Ziiric-Zee, the 



78 BRIDGETTIN NUNS OF SIGN HOUSE. 



capital of Zealand. But the unwholesomeness of the 
situation obliged them to remove again ; and in 1567 
they purchased a place near Antwerp, called Mesaghan, 
where they remained near five years. Subsequently 
they removed to Mechlin, and then to Rouen in 1580. 
Here they were hospitably received, provided with a 
house, and enabled to build a church. In addition to 
their pension from Spain of 1200 florins, the parliament 
voted them an allowance ; and they rested here for 
fourteen years. But on the accession of Henry IV. to 
the throne of France, the community became objects of 
suspicion ; their allowance was withdrawn, and they 
found it expedient to retire to Lisbon. 

They left Rouen, March 29, 1594, and proceeded to 
Havre de Grace, whence they embarked on the 5th of 
May, and after a passage of fifteen days, arrived at 
Lisbon. They were fifteen professed nuns, and one 
novice ; and were accompanied by three fathers of their 
Order. At Lisbon they met with a most kind and 
hospitable reception from the Franciscan nuns of the 
monastery of our Lady of Hope ; and in that convent 
they hved till they received from a noble lady a gift of 
some houses and grounds in the place called Mocambo, 



BRIDGETTIN NUNS OF SION HOUSE. 79 



where they built their church and monastery. King 
Philip II. endowed them with a pension of the value of 
lis. IJd. per diem of English money, besides thirty 
quarters of wheat annually, from the revenue of the fens 
belonging to the crown at Santarem. Their spiritual 
wants were supplied by two secular priests ; one of 
whom also administered the temporal concerns of the 
community. On the 17th of August, 1651, both their 
church and monastery were burnt to the ground ; and 
the good Franciscan nuns again afforded them an 
asylum for five years. In the same year, however, 
October 2nd, 1651, the first stone was laid for the 
foundation of the new building, and the religious 
returned to their old locality in 1656. 

They remained secure in their peaceful abode till the 
year 1810, when the disturbed state of affairs on the 
continent, and the privations they had suffered, induced 
some of them to seek refuge in England, their native 
country. Here they opened a school at Peckham in 
Surrey, calling their establishment by the old and 
venerable name of Sion House. Their school continued 
here about four years ; and they afterwards removed to 
Somerstown. Thence they went to reside at Cobridge 



80 BRIDGETTIN JSUNS OF SIGN HOUSE. 



Cottage, near Newcastle, in Staffordshire. This was in 
April 1822. They were only five in number at that 
time, including their abbess, Elizabeth Furnes. They 
left Cobridge in September 1829, to reside at Aston 
Hall, near Stone, in the same county. They dwindled 
down at length to two lay sisters, who left Aston in 
March 1837 ; one lived in lodgings at Newcastle-under- 
Lyme, the other with the Benedictin nuns at Win- 
chester, whither two of the choir nuns had retired some 
time before. Thus that portion of the Bridgettins who 
had come over from Lisbon became extinct ; but the 
remainder still exist at Lisbon. 



IV. 

POOR CLAEES. 

1. 

CONVENT OF POOR CLARES AT GRAVELINES. 

This first convent of nuns of the Order of St. Francis 
was established through the zeal of Mrs. Mary Ward, 
who entered a French convent of Poor Clares at 
St. Omer in 1607. Hearing of certain lands at Grave- 
lines, lately bequeathed for a religious foundation, she 
made interest with the bishop of St. Omer, and the 
abbot of St. Bertins, to procure them for the purpose 
of founding a monastery of English Poor Clares. 
Mrs. Ward proceeded to Brussels, and there obtained 
of the Austrian Archduke the necessary grant for 
executing her pious project at Gravelines ; but he gave 
this permission upon the conditions that the proposed 
convent should be under the jurisdiction of the bishop, 
and not chargeable to the inhabitants. The approbation 
of the Pope was next obtained ; who in a brief to the 
bishop of St. Omer, directed him to take charge of the 
establishment, and afibrd every assistance to the reli- 



82 POOR CLARES OF GRAVELINES. 

gious who should commence the undertaking. The 
Rev. John Gennings, a Franciscan of that branch of the 
Order, called Recollects, had a great share in the foun- 
dation of the monastery at Gravelines. Mrs. Ward 
collected together several English ladies, and procured 
the bishop's authority to receive such English nuns 
as had been professed in a French convent at St. Omer. 
Among these was Mary Gough, who was chosen supe- 
rior of the new convent, Clare Fowler, Lucy Darrel, 
and two lay-sisters. These took possession of the house 
at Gravelines, on the 14th of September, 1609. This 
being too small, they built one more complete, by the 
assistance of various kind friends, in 1611 ; their church 
being erected by one of the Gage family. Many holy 
souls, unknown to the world, practised in this convent 
the exercises of an interior life. The discipline of the 
house was the subject of general admiration, while the 
virtues of its inmates were a constant soui'ce of edifica- 
tion to the surrounding neighbourhood. The com- 
munity in 1624 numbered sixty-five members. The 
lives of two eminent members of this convent have been 
published by the Jesuit Father Edward Scarsbrick, who 
were Lady Warner, called in religion Sr. Clare of Jesus-, 



POOR CLARES OF GRAVELINES. 83 



and her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Warner, called Sr. Mary 
Clare. The former became a convert with her hus- 
band, Sir John Warner, and both embraced a religious 
state, he becoming a Jesuit, and she a Poor Clare ; and 
both made their religious profession on the same day, 
November 1, 1667, in the church of this convent. 

At the disastrous epoch of the French Revolution, this 
convent was surrounded with guards, on the ISth of 
October, 1793, and the papers and property of the nuns 
seized. Five days after, the two communities of Bene- 
dictins and Poor Clares from Dunkirk were brought 
prisoners to this convent, consisting in all of forty-two 
persons, making their whole number seventy-seven pri- 
soners. A few days after this, commissioners arrived, and 
effaced all pictures and tokens of royalty and nobility, 
both within and without the enclosure ; and hkewise 
secured all the sacred vessels, vestments and ornaments, 
and shut and sealed up the church and sacristy. For 
eighteen months the three communities were confined 
together, and sufiered severe privations and various afflic- 
tions, particularly from the want of fuel in a very severe 
winter. They were reduced to the necessity of cutting 
up the cupboards and wainscoting of the house, and 



POOR CLARES AT DUNKIRK. 



even the trees of the garden to obtain firing. They 
were allowed only a very small sum daily, amounting to 
no more than twopence of English money. At length 
they were declared at liberty ; but seeing no prospect 
of an end to their miseries where they were, they 
petitioned for passports to return to England. They 
quitted Gravelines April 29th, 1795, sailed from Calais 
on the 30th, and arrived in London on the 3rd of May. 
They received numberless proofs of charity and kind- 
ness on their arrival, many of them from persons 
unknown to them; but to one illustrious family in 
particular, including its worthy chaplain, they were 
indebted principally for their support in London, as 
well as for their first house of retirement in the 
country, which was at Gosfield in Essex. Afterwards 
they removed to Coxside, Plymouth ; and thence they 
went to join the community at Clare Lodge, Catterick, 
Yorkshire. 

POOR CLARES AT DUNKIRK. 

In the year 1623, four nuns were sent out from the 
original English convent of Poor Clares at Gravelines, 



POOR CLARES AT DUNKIRK. 85 



to solicit assistance, when from fire and other misfor- 
tunes that house had greatly suffered, and was brought 
into great difficulties. These were sisters Ann Ludoyica 
Browne, Mary Evangelist Clark, Ann Clare Anderson, 
and Clare Francis Rockwood, afterwards joined by 
another, Sr. Mary Collet Rockwood. They jSrst set up 
a school at Dunkirk ; and afterwards with the approba- 
tion of the bishop and governor, converted their school 
into a convent, and by due authority elected sister 
A. L. Browne their first abbess. She was niece of 
Viscount Montague, and possessed great piety, pru- 
dence, and humility. This occurred in the year 1654, 
and two years after the nuns retired to Ghent, Dunkirk 
having fallen into the hands of the English. They were 
encouraged, however, to return in the same year, and 
proceeded to erect a new convent on the same spot, 
where they had before resided. By the benefactions of 
friends, and the pensions of their school, they supported 
themselves, in the frugal way which befitted their state 
of holy poverty, until they were involved in the miseries 
of the French Revolution. In September, 1793, their 
spiritual director. Rev. Mr. Apedale was arrested ; and 
on the evening of October 13, the Benedictin dames of 



86 POOR CLARES AT AIRE. 



the same town were transferred to this convent. They 
were all strictly guarded ; and on the 16th were trans- 
ferred together to the convent of their sisters at Grave- 
lines. When at last they required their liberty, and 
returned to their native country, they were provided 
with a house at Church-Hill, near "Worcester, by the 
liberality of the Berkeley family of Spetchley. There 
they continued about twenty years, and gradually be- 
came extinct. 

3. 

POOR CLARES AT AIRE. 

This first filiation from the original house at Grave- 
lines, went forth in the year 1629. Their establishment 
was brought about chiefly by means of Father Erancis of 
St. Clare, alias Christopher Davenport. On the 19th of 
May, 1629, Margaret Radclifie, called in religion Sister 
Margaret of St. Paul, arrived at Aire, to preside as 
abbess over the new community of twenty -four persons, 
who had preceded her, from the convent at Gravelines. 
They were lodged at first in what is called the king's 
hall ; till their convent being ready for enclosure, 
F. Francis of St. Clare held a visitation of the members. 



POOR CLARES AT AIRE. 87 



and a new election took place, of superiors, and those 
who were to fill the various offices in the convent. The 
same abbess was re-elected, and the members consisted 
of eighteen choir nuns, two novices, and three lay 
sisters. The piety and virtues of this community at all 
times endeared them to the inhabitants of the little 
town of Aire. 

From the year 1793, these holy sisters had been 
hardly a day without apprehension ; but they continued 
in their convent. However, on the 20th of February, 
1798, their chaplain, F. Kington, was arrested, and the 
whole community shared the same fate on the 24th ; 
and were confined under guard in their convent, suffer- 
ing great privations till the 27th of June, when they 
were turned out at ten o'clock at night, without money 
or passports, to seek an asylum wherever they could. 
They were harboured with great kindness in diiferent 
houses of the inhabitants. They obtained passports for 
England on the 14th of August, and quitted the town 
September 4th, 1798. They reached Calais the same 
evening, and arrived at Dover September 1 1th. Twelve 
of the nuns reached London on the 13th, and the rest, 
with their chaplain, on the day following. In 1800, 



POOR CLARES AT ROUEN. 



they were settled at Britwell House, near Watlington, 
Oxfordshire. They afterwards removed to Coxside, 
Plymouth ; whence they repaired to Gravelines in 
1834, but quitted it in 1836, and joined the community, 
formerly of Rouen, now at Scorton, near Catterick, 
Yorkshire. 

4. 

POOR CLARES AT ROUEN. 

A colony was sent forth from the original establish- 
ment of Poor Clares at Gravelines, in the year 1648, 
to form a separate convent at Rouen. It consisted 
of fifteen religious, among whom were Sisters Mary 
Taylor, Ignatia Bedingfeld, "Winefrid Giffard, M. Mag- 
dalen Browne, and Clare Perkins. They were much 
encouraged by the inhabitants of Rouen, and received 
still more effectual support from king Charles II. his 
queen, and other royal and noble benefactors, amongst 
whom Lords Montague, Petre, and Arundell, and the 
Hon. Mr. Petre were conspicuous. The three ladies 
above mentioned were in succession the first abbesses of 
this convent, which was protected by letters patent from 
the king of France in 1650. Sr. Mary of the Holy 



POOR CLARES AT ROUEN. 



Cross, of the noble family of the Howards, was among 
those who attained a high degree of sanctity in this con- 
vent. Her life was composed and published by the 
venerable and learned Alban Butler. 

This community continued respected for the strict- 
ness and fervour with which they uniformly observed 
their austere rule, till they were called to suffer with 
the rest of their pious countrywomen, under the tyranny 
of the French revolutionists. They were arrested on 
the 2nd of October, 1793 ; their effects confiscated, and 
the deeds of their establishment obliged to be sur- 
rendered. Their church ornaments, crosses, religious 
memorials, and everything relating to religion were car- 
ried away or demoKshed. Their convent was made a 
common prison, in which 320 persons were confined ; 
the nuns themselves being shut up in granaries and 
other inconvenient parts of the convent. In the follow- 
ing Spring, they were removed to a different prison, 
called St. Mary's, which contained above 700 prisoners. 
Here they suffered dreadfully from want of room, fresh 
air, food and even water ; and were left to languish 
under these terrible privations till the 18th of January, 
1795, when they were allowed to quit their confinement. 

M 



90 RELIGIOUS OF ST. FRANCIS AT BRUGES. 

They were refused permission to return to their con- 
vent, and seeing no prospect for them in France but 
persecution and starvation, they resolved to throw 
themselves on the compassion and charity of their 
countrymen. They came over in parties, till all were 
happily landed in England, in the month of September, 
1795, being in number forty-three. They settled first 
at Haggerstone Castle, Belford, Northumberland ; and 
in 1808, removed thence to Scorton Hall, near Catterick, 
Yorkshire ; where they now remain, their establish- 
ment being called St. Clare's convent, 

5. 

RELIGIOUS OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS 
AT BRUGES. 

This convent of St. Elizabeth was first established at 
Brussels, by the instrumentality of the two Franciscan 
Fathers, Gennings and Davenport, in the year 1621. 
Their first superior was Mrs. Elizabeth Wilcox, who 
with five others made her profession in 1622. They 
removed in 1637 to Nieuport, in Flanders, on account 
of the dearness of the necessaries of life at Brussels. 
Thence in 1662, they retired to Bruges, to the ancient 



CONCEPTIONIST NUNS AT PARIS. 91 

palace called Princenhoff; but were not fully settled 
there till the 1st of March following. They were 
employed in the education of young ladies ; and con- 
tinued their peaceful and holy course of life, till in the 
month of June, 1794, they were alarmed by the report 
of the near approach of the French. Having com- 
mended themselves to Almighty God in the holy sacri- 
fice, they left their beloved convent, and arrived at 
Rotterdam on the 30th of June. They took shelter the 
day following at Delft ; but on the 23rd of July they 
embarked for England. They landed August 7th, at 
Greenvdch, and proceeded to London. They settled 
in the same year at the abbey house at Winchester; 
but in 1808 removed to Taunton Lodge, where they 
still remain. 



CONCEPTIONISTS AT PARIS, COMMONLY CALLED 
THE BLUE NUNS. 

The nuns of the Third Order of St. Francis, had 
been settled for some years at Nieuport in Flanders, as 
related in the preceding article, having entered their 
house there vdth forty in community in the year 1637. 



92 CONCEPTIONIST NUNS AT PARIS. 



About twenty years afterwards, ten of their number 
were sent to form a filiation in Paris. The Rev. Mother 
Angela Jerningham was appointed their abbess. They 
met with many friends, both English and French. For 
about two years, they were but indifierently accom- 
modated in a house in the Rue St. Jacques ; but they 
borrowed money to purchase a more convenient place in 
the Fauxbourg St. Antoine ; and gradually repaid the 
sum out of the fortunes of their novices. They built 
a small chapel adjoining their convent. They were 
encouraged and assisted by the Cardinal de Retz, and 
his successor in the archbishopric of Paris, Monseigneur 
Hardouin de Perefixe. This latter however obliged 
them to submit to his jurisdiction ;. and in consequence, 
they exchanged their previous rule for that of the 
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, which 
they did by permission of the sovereign pontifi" Alex- 
ander VII. They put on the habit and took the vows 
of this rule, on the feast of the Conception, in the year 
1661. The first abbess, Angela Jerningham, after being 
in office a little more than two years, was permitted, at 
her own request, to retire to Bruges, with her sister 
Mary Ignatia and two others. She was succeeded by 



CONCEPTIONIST NUNS AT PARIS. 



93 



Elizabeth Ann Tymperley ; and the third superior was 
Susanna Hawkins. Like several other communities, 
these religious employed them^selves in the education of 
young ladies. At the French Revolution, they were 
compelled to fly to their native land, and about six of 
them were most generously received by Sir William 
Jerningham, at Cossey Hall, near Norwich. A resi- 
dence was provided for them afterwards in the city 
of Norwich ; others being distributed in different 
places. But in a few years they all died away. 



V. 

DOMINICANESSES AT BRUSSELS. 

This was the only community of English nuns of the 
order of St. Dominic. It was founded by Cardinal 
Philip Howard, of the Norfolk family. At first he 
established them at Vilvorde, seven miles from Brussels. 
His own sister Henrietta, consecrating herself to God, 
became their first prioress. Several of the noble family 
of the Howards became nuns in this convent, besides 
many other ladies of distinction. In the year 1690, 
they were removed by their noble patron to a large old 
mansion in Brussels, called the SpeUekens, having a 
spacious garden attached to it. Their house, however, 
threatening ruin about the year 1777, they built a hand- 
some new convent and church in the upper part of their 
garden. Originally these reKgious were not employed 
in education; but the edict of Joseph II. in 1782, 
threatening the suppression of all convents of nuns not 
so employed, obliged them to procure scholars. By 
this means they remained unmolested, and in the peace- 
ful enjoyment of a religious life till the fatal period of 
the French revolution. « 



DOMINICANESSES AT BRUSSELS. 95 

The first entry of the French into Brussels was in 
November 1792; and while they remained, the com- 
munity of Dominicanesses were left in continual alarm. 
First they were compelled to supply a number of 
French soldiers with food and lodgings for three or four 
nights. Then, on the 6th of March 1793, a body of 
soldiers with their officers demanded admittance ; but 
being refused, they forcibly entered, plundered various 
parts of the house of provisions, and such articles of 
plate as they happened to find ; and worse than all, 
sacrilegiously carried ofi" the sacred vessels of the church, 
even taking the sacred ciborium out of the tabernacle. 
This was done however by the commanding officer 
himself with much apparent reverence, as if his faith and 
conscience reproached him for his impious act. He pre- 
viously deposited the sacred particles on a corporal, and 
carefully wiped out the ciborium with a mundatory. 
Indeed the behaviour of both officers and men, while in 
the convent, was tolerably respectful. The French fled, 
on the approach of the Austrians ; and the church plate 
was recovered, though much battered and injured. 

On the 21st of June 1794, it became necessary for 
these religious to provide for their safety by immmediate 



96 



DOMINICANESSES AT BRUSSELS. 



iliglit. Tliey first took refuge at the college of the 
Fathers of their order at Bornheim, a distance of twenty 
miles from Brussels ; having only two conveyances, 
which were appropriated to the infirm and aged, the 
rest walking over hot sand in a burning sun. They 
remained at the college till the evening of June 
24th, when they were obliged to decamp again. 
Their confessor. Rev. T. L. Brittain, had come 
mth them from Brussels ; and now proceeded 
with them, and several of the Dominican Fathers 
in two small vessels to Antwei^. Thence they sailed 
to Rotterdam, and arrived there on the 29th, after nar- 
rowly escaping being drowned, by one of the vessels 
springing a leak in the night. They remained at Rot- 
terdam ten days, and embarked at length for England 
in an American vessel, destitute of every convenience. 
They were repeatedly fired at by foreign vessels on 
their voyage, but happily escaped all dangers, and 
arrived safe in the Thames July 16th, 1794. They 
remained in London seven weeks, when a generous offer 
was made to them of an ancient mansion of the 
Berkeley family, called Hartpury Court, situated about 
six miles from Gloucester. It then belonged to the 



DOMINICANESSES AT BRUSSELS. 97 

present Lady Southwell, and her sister, the late Mrs. 
Robert Canning. This they joyfully accepted, with 
lively gratitude to their kind benefactresses. They left 
London, September 1, 1794, and reached Hartpury 
Court the day following. In that venerable abode they 
remained forty-five years ; and would gladly have con- 
tinued there, had not the old house become so decayed, 
as to be pronounced past all repairing. They removed 
in 1839 to a convent newly built for their reception at 
Atherstone, in Warwickshire, to which they gave the 
name of the Rosary convent, and where they now 
remain. 



VI. 

TESUITESSES 
CONVENT OF JESUITESSES AT ST. OMEK 

In the account given above of the convent of Poor 
Clares at Gravelines, it v^as mentioned that they owed 
their establishment principally to the zeal of a pious 
lady, Mrs. Mary Ward. That excellent vroman how- 
ever did not remain herself among them, though she 
had previously been a novice in a French convent of 
Poor Clares at St. Omer's. She formed a project of 
another estabhshment of religious women, who should 
be bound by certain vows, but vdthout enclosure ; and 
whose principal occupation should be to educate young 
ladies. This she attempted by the advice of Father 
Roger Lee, and other Jesuits. She began with several 
young ladies, in a house at St. Omer's, about the year 
1603. The Jesuits mainly supported their cause, and 
endeavoured to procure their establishment. Hence 
they were called Jesuitesses, but sometimes also 
Wardists. Many objections, however, were raised 
against this new institution ; and though several of its 
members went to Rome, in the hope of obtaining the 



JESUITESSES. 99 



Pope's approbation, they could never succeed. Their 
not being subject to enclosure opened the door to many 
abuses ; and instances were enumerated of very im- 
proper behaviour on the part of some of the members in 
consequence. They were sixteen in number at St. 
Omer's in the year 1622. In 1629, they had planted 
themselves in Liege ; but meeting no countenance 
there, they removed to Munich. Their institute how- 
ever was condemned and abolished by Pope Urban VIII. 
January 13, 1630; so that they could continue after- 
wards only as a private congregation under simple vows. 
In this character however, they succeeded, and pro- 
duced admirable fruits, having two filiations in England, 
one at Hammersmith, and the other at the Bar at York ; 
which latter still continues usefully employed in the 
education of young ladies. 



VII. 

TERESIANS OR CARMELITES. 
1. 
TERESIANS AT ANTWERP. 
This was the first convent of English Teresian nuns 
established on the continent. Lady Mary Lord, alias 
Roper, daughter of Lord Teynham undertook its foun- 
dation, with the assistance of one of the companions of 
St. Teresa, the blessed Ann of St. Bartholomew, in 
whose arms indeed that saint expired. It was founded 
under the patronage of St. Joseph and St, Ann, May 1, 
1619, after many obstacles had been surmounted by the 
zeal and perseverance of the pious foundress. The first 
prioress was Ann Worsley, who presided over this com- 
munity with admirable wisdom, sweetness, and charity 
for twenty-five years, having been re-elected to the 
office of prioress every three years, as the term of her 
superiority expired. Teresa Ward from Poland, and 
three Flemish sisters from Brussels and Louvain became 
with her the first members. Many ladies of family and 
fortune were inspired to renounce all, and become poor 
Carmelites in this convent. Some of them were after- 



TERESIANS AT LIERRE. 



101 



wards sent out to Nieuenberg, Bois-le-Duc, and Alost, 
where they continued to lead lives worthy of their holy 
vocation. The best known of these to English Catholics 
was Mrs. Margaret Wake, who died in the odour of 
sanctity, in the convent at Antwerp, on the 21st of 
June, 1678. In 1624, their number appears to have 
been about twenty. 

These religious felt, in common with all their pious 
sisters in other communities, the dire effects of the 
French Revolution. They were obKged to abandon 
their beloved convent, on the 29th of June, 1794. They 
proceeded to Rotterdam, and arrived in London on the 
12th of July. There they met with generous protectors 
and benefactors, whom divine Providence sent to their 
succour ; many of whom they never knew before. By 
favour of a nobleman of distinguished piety and charity, 
they were settled at Llanherne, near St. Columb's, in 
Cornwall, where they have ever since remained. 

2. 



TERESIANS AT LIERRE. 
After the mother-house of CarmeKte nuns of the 
English nation had flourished for almost thirty years at 



102 TERESIANS AT LIERRE. 



Antwerp, a colony went forth from it to form a second 
establishment at Lierre. This happened in the year 
1648 ; and the new community consisted of ten of the 
religious sisters from Antwerp, with the venerable 
Mothers Margaret and Ursula, both of the Mostyn 
family^ The establishment fully answered the ends of 
its institution. The community lived in the fervent 
practice of the duties of their austere rule ; and were 
rewarded by that happiness, and those consolations of 
an interior life, which are indescribable. Thus they 
continued, till the approach of the French army obliged 
them to fly for security to their native country. They 
made what preparations they could, at a very short 
notice, quitted their convent on the 23rd of June, 
1794, and arrived safe in London on the 7th of July 
following. From their first landing in England, they 
experienced the greatest humanity and generosity. 
Under the patronage of a worthy baronet they were 
settled first at Auckland, St. Helen's, near Durham. 
Thence they removed in 1804 to Cocken Hall, near 
Durham, where they remained till 1830, when they 
settled at Carmel House, Darlington. 



TERESIANS AT HOOGSTRAET. 103 

3. 

TERESIANS AT HOOGSTRAET. 

This convent of English Teresian nuns owed its 
foundation to the Countess of Hoogstraet. She pro- 
cured some Carmelite nuns from the mother-house at 
Antwerp, for this new establishment, which was founded 
on the 18th of August, 1678. Her eldest daughter, 
Mary Margaret, took the habit in this convent, and 
made her profession on the 16th of October, 1680. 
This lady was afterwards chosen superior, in which she 
continued many years, until her death on the 6th of 
February, 1713. Many of these holy rehgious died in 
high repute for their virtue and piety. The community 
continued their retired and happy Kfe, undisturbed, till 
the anarchy and irreligion produced by the French 
Revolution. They were compelled to quit their con- 
vent, in the morning of the 7th of July, 1794, and 
arrived in London very early in the morning of the 
13th, with their chaplain. They were received with 
the most tender affection by their relatives and friends, 
and with compassion and kindness by the people in 
general, who gathered around them in great numbers. 



104- CONCLUSION. 



Their first residence in England was at Fryer's Place, 
near Acton, Middlesex ; whence they removed in 1800 
to Canford House, near Wimborn. In 1828, they 
settled at Torigny, near St. Lo, in Normandy. 



CONCLUSION, 

In the foregoing pages, some account has been given 
of every English religious establishment on the con- 
tinent, from the period of the suppression of religious 
houses in England, in the sixteenth century. If some 
convents now in England are not here noticed, it is 
either on account of their not having been established 
originally for English subjects, or having been first 
founded in England subsequently to the French Revo- 
lution. The object of the foregoing pages has been to 
preserve in a collected form some records of those 
venerable establishments, precious monuments of the 
piety of our ancestors ; and of that enduring faith, 
which when persecuted in its native country, quickly 
took root in foreign soil, and there flourished, till by 
the merciful decree of Heaven it was happily enabled to 
live again in its own land. " When the Lord brought 



CONCLUSION. 



105 



" back the captivity of Sion, we became like men com- 
" forted. The Lord hath done great things for us : 
" we are become joyful. Going they went and wept, 
" casting their seeds. But coming they shall come 
" with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves." Ps. cxxv. 



THE END. 



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Bacon and Kinnebrook, Mercury OfiRce, Norwich. 



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LIBRARY OF CON.SSl * 



028 310 039 A 



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